Title of The Book.—莊公, 'Duke Zhuang.' This was the
son of Huan, whose birth is chronicled in II. vi. 5, and who received
the name of Tong (同), in the manner described in the Zhuan on that
paragraph. He was therefore now in his 13th year. The honorary title
Zhuang denote——Conqueror of enemies and Subduer of disorder (勝敵克亂曰莊).'

Zhuang's rule lasted 32 years, B.C. 692—661. His
first year synchronized with the 4th year of king Zhuang (莊); the 5th of
Xiang (襄) of Qi; the 12th of Min (緡) of Jin; the 7th of Hui (惠), and the
3d of Qianmou (黔牟), of Wey [Hui is the Shuo (朔) of II. xvi. 5. See the
Zhuan there]; the 2d of Ai (哀) of Cai; the 8th of Li (厲), and the 1st of
Ziyi (子儀), of Zheng [see the Zhuan appended to II. xviii. 3]; the 9th of
Zhuang (莊) of Cao; the 7th of Zhuang (莊) of Chen; the 11th of Jing (靖)
of Qi (杞); the 17th of Zhuang (莊) of Song; the 5th of Wu (武) of Qin; and
the 48th of Wu of Chu.

Par. 1. See on I. i. 1, and II. i. 1. There is here
the same incompleteness of the text as in I. i. 1; and no doubt for the
same reason,—that the usual ceremonies at the commencement of the rule
of a new marquis were not observed. The young marquis's father had been
basely murdered; he took his place; but with as little observation as
possible. Zuoshi says that 'the phrase 即位 is not used here because Wen
Jiang [his mother] had left the State.' This occasions some difficulty,
as will be seen, with the next par.

Par. 2. The char. (孫) read xun, and in the 3d tone,
is =避 'to retire,' 'to withdraw;'—a euphemism for 奔 'fled'. It is
evident that Wen Jiang had returned from Qi to Lu; —when she did so,
does not appear. From Zuoshi's observation above, that the phrase 即位 was
omitted in the account of Zhuang's accession, because his mother was
then in Qi, it would appear as if she returned subsequently to that
event. But that explanation of the omission is inadmissible; and the
view of Mao and others is much more probable, that she had returned to
Lu at the same time that the coffin and corpse of duke Huan were brought
to it. She probably felt her position there exceedingly unpleasant.
Guilty of incest with her brother, and of complicity in the murder of
her husband, she could not be looked kindly on by her son or the people
of Lu; and now therefore she fled to Qi.

Mysteries are found in the omission of the words 姜氏,
'the lady Keang,' after 夫人 on which we need not touch. Zuoshi says they
are left out, ' as a disowning of her, and not acknowledging her
kinship;—as was proper;' but even this is doubtful.

Gong and Gu give a very strange view of the par.
They think that Wen Jiang had not returned at all to Lu; and that duke
Zhuang, just at this period of the mourning for his father, was led to
think sorrowfully of her absence, and ordered the entry in the text to
be made about her. This is clearly most unlikely in itself, and contrary
to the usage of 孫 which we shall meet with in other passages.

Par. 3. A treaty of marriage had for more than a
year been going on between Lu, on behalf of the royal House, on the one
hand, and Qi on the other. When the king wanted to marry one of his
daughters to any of the princes, it was considered inconsistent with his
dignity to appear in the matter himself; and a prince of the same
surname was employed as internuncius and manager. This duty was
frequently devolved on the princes of Lu; and Huan had undertaken it in
this instance. His meeting with the marquis of Qi at Luo (濼), in the
first month of last year, had reference perhaps to this very matter.
When the marriage was fixed, the rule was that the king should send the
lady, escorted by a high minister, to the court of the managing prince;
and there she was met or sent for by her future husband.

Accordingly, we have in the text the earl [a royal
minister, so titled] of Shan [the name of the city assigned to him in
the royal domain] escorting the lady (孫, a royal Ji] to Lu. On this view
of the paragraph, all is plain; but instead of (送), Gong and Gu,
followed in this instance by the Kangxi editors, have 逆 'met.' This
necessitates our understanding 單 伯, as the surname and designation of an
officer of Lu, specially commissioned, somehow, to meet and convoy the
king's daughter to Lu. One can easily see how 送 and 逆, might be
mistaken, the one for the other. There can be no doubt, it seems to me,
that Zuoshi's reading should be followed.

Par. 4. It was autumn, when the king's daughter
arrived at the capital of Lu. The case was a hard one, as Zhuang was
still in mourning for his father. To be managing the marriage of the
king's daughter to the man who had murdered his own father, was a
greater difficulty still. The case was met, in part at least, by not
receiving the lady in the palace or the ancestral temple, but building a
館, a sort of hall or reception-house for her, outside the city. Zuoshi
says, 'This was treating her as an outsider (為外);—which was proper.'

Par. 6. 命 is used here as in the Shu, V. viii. 4,
meaning the symbols of investiture or more generally of royal favour.
These were of 9 kinds, all of which could be conferred only on the
holder of a fief of the first class,—a duke or a marquis. An earl might
have seven of them; a viscount or a baron, 5. The proper place for
conferring them was the court, on the noble's personal appearance; but
they might also be sent;—as in the Shu, V. xiii. 25. To confer them, as
here, on a dead man, seems very strange; and on a man who had been
stained with crime, is stranger still. Whatever the gifts were, they
would be treasured in Lu as royal testimonials to the excellence of duke
Huan. Rong [the clanname] Shu [the designation] was a great officer of
the court. According to the analogy of other passages. there ought to be
天 before 王. It may have slipped out of the text, or been unwittingly
omitted by the historiographers.

Par. 8. Qi here takes an important step in carrying
out its cherished purpose of extinguishing the State of Ji. Ping is
referred to somewhere in the pres. dep. of Qingzhou; Zi [so 鄑 is read],
to dis. of Changyih (昌邑), same dep.; and Wu to a place 60 li to the
southwest of dis. Anqiu (安丘), dep. Ji'nan. These were three towns or
cities of Ji, the inhabitants of which the marquis of Qi removed within
his own State, peopling them also, we must suppose, with his own
subjects. Guliang wrongly supposes that the three names are those of
three small States, absorbed by Qi at this time in addition to Ji. But
the end of Ji was not yet.

II. Second year.

1. In the [duke's] second year, in spring, in the
king's second month, there was the burial of duke Zhuang of Chen.

2. In summer, duke [Huan's] son Qingfu led a force,
and invaded Yuyuqiu.

3. In autumn, in the seventh month, the king's
daughter, [married to the marquis] of Qi, died.

4. In winter, in the twelfth month, the [late duke's]
wife, the lady Jiang, had a meeting with the marquis of Qi in Zhuo.

5. On Yiyou, Ping, duke of Song, died.

COMMENTARY

Par. 2. Qingfu was the name of a half-brother of
duke Zhuang, older than he, but the son of a concubine. Older than
Zhuang, he should be designated Meng (孟); but as not being the son of
the rightful wife, he was only styled Zhong (仲), and his descendants
became the Zhongsun (仲孫) clan, which subsequently was changed into
Mengsun (孟孫);—see the note in the Analects on II.v.1. Gongyang is wrong
in saying he was a younger full brother of Zhuang; how could a boy of 10
or thereabouts be commanding on a military expedition? Du says that
Yuyuqiu was the name of a State, while Gong, Gu, and Yingda, all make it
a city of Zhu (邾). Du's view is to be preferred; and from the foreign,
barbarous, tri-syllabic aspect of the name, we may infer that the State
was that of some wild tribe, not far from Lu.

Par. 3. The 列國志 says the lady pined away, and died
broken-hearted, on finding what sort of a husband she was mated to. Her
death is entered here, contrary to the rule in such matters, probably
because Lu had superintended the marriage, and she might be considered
as one of the daughters of the State. See a reference to the death of
this lady, and duke Zhuang's wearing mourning for her 9 months, in the
Li ji, II. Pt. II. i. 18.

Par. 4. The critics are unanimous in supposing that
this par. implies that Wen Jiang had again returned to Lu, after her
withdrawment to Qi in the 3d month of last year. Zhuo [Gongyang has 郜]
was in Qi, on its western border. Zuoshi says plainly that the object of
the meeting was a repetition of the former crime.

Par. 5. See the Zhuan appended to I. iii. 5, and the
note on II.ii. 3.

III. Third year.

1. In the [duke's] third year, in spring, in the
king's first month, Ni joined an army of Qi in invading Wey.

2. In summer, in the fourth month, there was the
burial of duke Zhuang of Song.

3. In the fifth month, there was the burial of king
Huan.

4. In autumn, the third brother of [the marquis of]
Ji entered with [the city of] Xi under [the protection of] Qi.

5. In winter the duke halted in Hua.

COMMENTARY

Par. 1. Compare I. iv. 5. We have here the name Ni,
just as in that par. we have the name Hui. Zuoshi says here, as there,
that the omission of 公子, 'duke's son,' before the name, indicates the
sage's dislike of the individual and his enterprise (疾之也); and though
that omission has no such significance, the invasion of Wey was
certainly most blame-worthy. Shuo the marquis of Wey, stained with
atrocious crimes, had fled to Qi, in the 16th year of Huan, and Qianmou,
with the approval of the king [see VI. 1], had been raised to his place;
yet here we have Qi moving to restore Shuo, and Lu, forgetting its own
injuries received from Qi, joining in the attempt.

Par. 3. Zuoshi remarks that this burial was late;
and late it was, as king Huan had died in the 15th year of duke Huan.
Some reason there must have been for deferring the interment so long,
but we know not what. Gong and Gu, without any evidence in support of
their view, suppose that this was a second burial,—the removal of the
coffin from its first resting place to another.

Par. 4. The marquis of Ji was of course the eldest
brother of his family (伯), and the one here mentioned would be his 3d or
his 4th brother. Xi was a city of Ji,—in the pres. dis. of Linzi (臨淄),
dep. Qingzhou. Qi had begun to carry into effect its purpose of annexing
the State of Ji (see I. 8). This brother of the marquis, seeing the
approaching fate of the whole State, makes offer of the city and
district under his charge, and enters Qi as a Fuyong (附庸), or attached
State, in which he might preserve the sacrifices to his ancestors.
Zuoshi says that 'Ji now began to be divided.'

Par. 5. Hua (Gong and Gu have 郎), acc. to Du,
belonged to Zheng;—in Sui Zhou (睢州), dep. Guide; but Mao and many other
recent critics think it was the name of a small State near to Zheng.
Zuoshi says that the duke wanted to have a meeting with the earl of
Zheng (Ziyi 子儀), to consult if any thing could be done for Ji, but that
the earl pleaded his own difficulties [arising from his brother Tu], and
declined a meeting. In explanation of the term 次, —Tso adds:—In all
military expeditions, where a halt is made for one night, it is called
宿; where it is for two nights, it is called 信; and when for more than
two nights, it is called 次 .'

IV. Fourth year.

1. In the [duke's] fourth year, in spring, in the
king's second month, [duke Huan's] wife, the lady Jiang, feasted the
marquis of Qi at Zhuqiu.

2. In the third month, [duke Yin's] eldest daughter,
[who had been married to the marquis] of Ji, died.

3. In summer, the marquis of Qi, the marquis of Chen,
and the earl of Zheng met at Chui.

4. The marquis of Ji made a grand leaving of his
State.

5. In the sixth month, on Yichou, the marquis of Qi
interred [duke, Yin's] eldest daughter of Ji.

6. It was autumn, the seventh month.

7. In winter, the duke and an officer of Qi hunted in
Zhuo.

COMMENTARY

Par. 1. Zhuqiu,—see on II. v. 5. It appears from
this that the duke's mother had returned to Lu, after her meeting with
her brother in II. 4. Her now getting him to come to Lu, and openly
feasting him, shows how they were becoming more and more shameless.

Par. 2. This is the lady whose marriage was
chronicled in I. ii. 5, 6. The death of daughters of the House of Lu who
had been married to other princes was chronicled by the
historiographers; and sometimes their burial also.

[Zuoshi adds here;—In the 3d month of this year,
king Wu of Chu, made new arrangements for marshalling the army, and
supplied the soldiers with the hooked spear. He was then going to invade
Sui; and, being about to fast before the delivery of the new weapons, he
went into his palace, and told his wife, Man of Deng [see the Zhuan
after II. xiii. 1] that his heart felt all-agitated. "Your majesty's
life [lit., revenues]," said she, sighing, "is near an end. After
fulness comes that dissipation;—such is the way of Heaven. The former
rulers [in whose temple he was going to fast] must know this; and
therefore, at the commencement of this military undertaking, when you
were about to issue your great commands, they have thus agitated your
majesty's heart. If the expedition take no damage, and your majesty die
on the march, it will be the happiness of the State." The king marched
immediately after this, and died under a man tree. The chief minister
[see Ana. V. xviii.], Dou Qi, and the Mo'ao, Qu Chong, made a new path,
bridged over the Zha, and led their army close to Sui, the inhabitants
of which were afraid, and asked for terms of peace. The Mo'ao, as if by
the king's command, entered the city, and made a covenant with the
marquis of Sui, asking him also to come to a meeting on the north of the
Han, after which the army returned. It was not till it had crossed the
Han that the king's death was made known, and the funeral rites began.']

Par. 3. Chui,—see I. viii. 1. The meeting here had
reference, probably, to Ji, which was now near its end as an independent
State. Hu An'guo and many other critics think Tu, or duke Li, is the
earl of Zheng here intended; but much more likely is the view that it
was Ziyi [see the Zhuan after p. 5 of II. xviii.]. The word 遇 is used
instead of 會, probably because the meeting wanted some of the usual
formalities.

Par. 4. Zuoshi says:—The marquis of Ji was unable to
submit to Qi, and gave over the State to his 3d brother. In summer, he
took a grand leave of it, to escape the oppression of Qi.' The poor
marquis was unable to cope with his relentless enemy, and rather than
sacrifice the lives of the people in a vain struggle, he gave the State
over to his brother, who had already put himself under the jurisdiction
of Qi (III. 4). Du says that 'to leave and not return is called a grand
leaving.' The phrase is here complimentary. Gongyang, indeed, argues
that the style of the paragraph, concealing the fact that Qi now
extinguished the State of Ji, was designed to gloss over the wickedness
of the marquis of Qi in the act, because he thereby revenged the wrong
done in B. C. 893 to one of his ancestors, who was boiled to death at
the court of Zhou, having been slandered by the then lord of Ji! The
marquis of Qi, therefore, was now only discharging a duty of revenge in
destroying the House of Ji! Into such vagaries do the critics fall, who
will find 'praise or censure' in the turn of every sentence in this
Classic.

Par. 5. The leaving his wife unburied shows to what
straits the prince of Ji had been reduced, when he went away. The
marquis of Qi, we may suppose, now performed the duty of interment, with
all the honours due to the lady's rank, partly in compliment to Lu, and
partly to conciliate the people.

Par. 7. Here, as in II. 4, Gongyang has 郜 instead of
禚. Both Gong and Gu say that by 齊人 is intended the marquis of Qi
himself; but Du simply says the phrase 微者, 'a mere officer,' adding that
the nature of the whole transaction,—the duke's crossing his own borders
and hunting in another State with one of inferior rank,—is sufficiently
apparent.

V. Fifth year.

1. It was [the duke's] fifth year, the spring, the
king's first month.

2. In summer, [duke Huan's] wife, the lady Jiang went
to the army of Qi.

3. In autumn, Lilai of Ni paid a visit to our court.

4. In winter, the duke joined an officer of Qi, and
an officer of Song, an officer of Chen, and an officer of Cai, and
invaded Wey.

COMMENTARY

Par, 2. The army of Qi was probably in Ji at this
time. Wen Jiang now joined her brother, in the sight of thousands. Wang
Bao says:—The month of former meetings, as at Zhuo and Zhuqiu, was
mentioned, intimating that after some days the marquis and his sister
separated. Here the season is given, intimating that they remained
together for months.'

Par. 3. E (Gongyang has 倪) was a small attached
territory under the jurisdiction of Song,—in pres. dis. of Teng (滕),
dep. Yanzhou. Its chief, as Zuo says, had not received from the king any
symbol of dignity (未王命), and therefore he is mentioned by his name,—Li
(Zuo has 犂) lai. The chiefs of attached territories are mentioned both
by their names, and designations. Hu An'guo thinks that the name
indicates that the territory is that of some barbarous tribe. Dong
Zhongshu (董仲舒; early in the Han dyn.) says that when the territory
contained 30 square li, the chief was mentioned by his designation; when
it had only 20 square li, simply by his name. All this is very doubtful.

Par. 4. The object of this expedition was the
restoration of Shuo, or duke Hui;—see
II.xvi.5.

VI. Sixth year.

1. In the [duke's] sixth year, in spring, in the
king's first month, Zitu, an officer of the king, [endeavoured to]
relieve [the capital of] Wey.

5. In winter, an officer of Qi came to present [to
Lu] the spoils of Wey.

COMMENTARY

Par. 1. Gong and Gu both read here 三 instead of 正.
The king made an effort to support Wey against the attempt to reinstate
Shuo; but his ministers all declined the risk of commanding the
expedition. Only Zitu in the text, not even a 'great officer,' would
hazard himself of the enterprize. Du, followed by Yingda, and a host of
others, consider that Zitu was the officer's designation, while Gong and
Gu have many critics, and among them for once Mao Qiling, affirming that
it was his name. I think the former view is the correct one.

Par. 2. As Shuo had been de facto marquis of Wey,
the 入于衛 here, as descriptive of his restoration, is peculiar. Comp. II.
xi. 5, xv. 5; et al. The phrase seems to be condemnatory of him,
entering as an enemy into his capital. Zuoshi says:——In summer, the
marquis of Wey entered; drove Gongzi Qianmou [see the Zhuan to II xvi.
5] to Zhou, and Ning Gui to Qin; and put to death Xie and Zhi, the sons
of duke Huan by the two ladies on the right and left of the harem. After
this he took his place as marquis. The superior man will say, "The
action of the two sons of duke Huan in raising Qianmou to the marquisate
was ill-considered. He who would be able to make sure the seat to which
he raises any one, must measure the beginning and the end of his
protege, and then establish him as circumstances direct. If he know the
individual to have no root in himself, he dismisses him from his plans.
If he know that his root will not produce branches, it is vain to try to
strengthen him. The Book of Poetry says, "The root and the branches
increase for a hundred generations (Shi III. i. I.2)."

Par. 4. Sec I. v. 6.

Par. 5. Gong and Gu both read 寶 here for 俘, and
Zuoshi also has 寶 in his Zhuan, so that Du suspects 俘 to be an error of
the text. It need not be so, however, for 俘 may signify either prisoners
or precious spoils generally. See an instance of the latter application
of it in the Preface to the Shu, p. 14. Zuoshi says that this gift of
the spoils of Wey was made at the request of Wen Jiang.

[The Zhuan adds here:—King Wen of Chu was invading
Shen and passed by Deng. Qi, marquis of Deng, said, "He is my sister's
son;" and thereupon detained and feasted him. Three other sisters' sons,
called Zhui, Dan, and Yang requested leave to put the viscount [i.e.,
the soidisant king] to death, but the marquis refused it. "It is
certainly this man," said they, "who will destroy the State of Deng. If
we do not take this early measure, hereafter you will have to gnaw your
navel;—will you then be able to take any measures? This is the time to
do what should be done." The marquis, however, said, "If I do this deed,
no man will hereafter eat from my board [吾餘 'what I have left;' i e.,
what remains to me for my own use, after all the sacrificial
offerings]." They replied, "If you do not follow our advice, even the
altars will have no victims, and where will you hereafter get food to
put on your board ?" Still the marquis would not listen to them; and in
the year after he returned from invading Shen, the viscount of Chu
attacked Deng. In the 16th year of duke Zhuang, he again attacked and
extinguished it.]

VII. Seventh year.

1. In the [duke's] seventh year, in spring, [duke
Huan's] wife, the lady Jiang, had a meeting with the marquis of Qi at
Fang.

2. In summer, in the fourth month, on Xinmao, at
night, the regular stars were not visible. At midnight, there was a fall
of stars like rain.

3. In autumn, there were great floods, so that there
was no wheat nor other grain in the blade.

4. In winter, [duke Huan's] wife, the lady Jiang, had
a meeting with the marquis of Qi in Gu.

COMMENTARY

Par. 1. Fang,—see 1. ix. 6. As Fang was in Lu,
Zuoshi says that this meeting was sought by Qi. Of course, when a
meeting between the brother and sister was in Qi, he would say that Wen
Jiang was the mover to it.

Par. 2. 見 is read xian, 'to appear,' 'to be
visible.' For the 1st 夜 Guliang has 昔; and for 隕, in this other and
passages, Gongyang has 霣, Kong Yingda says, 'The term "night" covers all
the space from dusk to dawn, but as we have here "midnight" specified,
we must understand the previous "night" of the time before midnight,—the
time after twilight. Then the stars were not visible;—it is not said
that they were not visible during all the night. Guliang reads 昔 for 夜,
and defines 昔 as meaning the time between sundown and the appearance of
the stars. But during this time of course the stars would not be
visible, and why should that regularly recurring fact be mentioned in
the text as a thing remarkable' By 恆星 we are to understand the stars
generally,—all 'constantly, regularly,' visible, or that may be expected
to be so. Mao Xihe (毛西河) would confine the phrase to the stars in the 28
constellations of the zodiac, and taken the 星 below of the other stars.
But it is not necessary to do so. Before midnight the sky was very
bright, as if a flush of sunlight were still upon it, so that the stars
were not visible as usual. As Zuoshi says, 'The night was bright.' After
midnight came a grand shower of meteors. The phrase 星隕如雨, 'the stars
fell as rain,' seems plain enough. Zuo, however, and Guliang take 如=而
'and.' The former says: —'The stars fell along with the rain;' the
latter, 'There fell stars, and it rained.' Gongyang says, without giving
any authority, that, before Confucius revised the text of the Chunqiu of
Lu, this entry was—雨星不及地 尺而復, 'It rained stars to within a foot of the
earth, when they reascended!'

Par. 3. 秋大水,——see II.i.5; et al. At this time the
wheat was getting to be ripe, while the rice, millet, etc., were only in
the blade. The floods washed all away; yet Zuoshi says 'they did not
hurt the good grain,' meaning there was still time to sow the paddy and
millet again, and reap a crop before the winter. The Kangxi editors cast
out of the text this remark of Zuo's; indicating thereby, as on other
occasions of the same suppression, their dissent from it.

VIII. Eighth year.

1. In the [duke's] eighth year, in spring, in the
king's first month, [our] army halted at Lang, to wait for the troops of
Chen, and the troops of Cai.

2. On Jiawu, we exercised the soldiers in the use of
their weapons.

3. In summer, [our] army and the army of Qi besieged
Cheng. Cheng surrendered to the army of Qi.

4. In autumn, [our] army returned.

5. In winter, in the eleventh month, on Guiwei, Wuzhi
of Qi murdered his ruler, Zhu'er.

COMMENTARY

Par. 1. Lang,—see I. ix. 4; et al. The duke had
probably made an agreement with the princes of Chen and Cai to join in
the attack on Cheng; and as their troops had not arrived at the time
agreed on, the army of Lu was obliged to wait for them here at Lang.
This is the natural explanation of the par. Fan Ning, on Guliang, and He
Xiu, on Gongyang, suppose that the halting of the troops at Lang was to
meet a real or pretended invasion of Lu by Cai and Chen.

Par. 2. Gongyang reads 祠 for 治, but with the same
meaning. Zuoshi says that the 治兵, whatever it was, took place in the
ancestral temple, and was proper. But it took place, evidently, at Lang,
while the troops were halting for those of Cai and Chen. As to the
expression 治兵, it is a technical phrase, the exact meaning of which it
is difficult to determine.

In the Zhou li, XXIX. 25—43, we have an account of
the huntings at the four seasons of the year, and the military exercises
practised in connection with them, under the direction of the minister
of War. At midspring the men were taught 振旅; at midsummer, 茇舍; at
midautumn,治兵; and at midwinter, 大閱. Biot there translates 仲秋教治兵 by 'au
milieu de l'automne il enseigne l'art de faire la guerre, ou conduire
les soldats en expedition.' But 兵 was not used anciently for 'soldiers,'
but for weapons of war, especially pointed, offensive weapons, though
buff-coats and shields may also be admitted under the term. I think that
治兵 denotes the putting the weapons, offensive and defensive, in order,
and the methods of attack. Some critics find fault with Zuo's saying
that the 治兵 was in order here, when the exercise was appropriate to
midautumn; but it was so appropriate only in times of peace. Now Lu was
engaged in war, and it was then appropriate, whenever it would be
advantageous.

Par. 3. Cheng (Gong has 成),—see I. v.3. As no
mention is made of Cai and Chen, their troops probably had not come up
at all. And we do not know the circumstances sufficiently to understand
why Cheng surrendered to Qi alone, and not to the allied army of Qi and
Lu. That a slight was done to Lu, we understand from the Zhuan:——'When
Cheng surrendered to the army of Qi, Zhong Qingfu asked leave to attack
that army. The duke said, "No. It is I who am really not virtuous. Of
what crime is the army of Qi guilty? The crime is all from me. The Book
of Xia says:——'Gaoyao vigorously sowed abroad his virtue, and it made
the people submissive (But see on the Shu, II. ii. 10).' Let us
meanwhile give ourselves to the cultivation of our virtue, and bide our
time."' It would appear from this narrative that duke Zhuang was himself
with the army, though the style of all the paragraphs makes us conclude
that he was not himself commanding.

Par. 4. The return of an army is not usually
chronicled in the Chunqiu as it is here. Zuoshi observes that from the
mention of it here the superior man will commend duke Zhuang. It is not
easy to see the point of the remark, unless we take it as referring to
the duke's words in the preceding Zhuan.

Par. 5. Zhu'er was the name of the marquis of
Qi,—duke Xiang. Wuzhi was a son of Yi Zhongnian (夷仲年), an uncle of the
marquis. The marquis and he therefore were first cousins. The Zhuan on
this par. is:——'The marquis of Qi had sent Lian Cheng and Guan Zhifu to
keep guard at Kuiqiu. It was the season of melons when they left the
capital, and he said, "When the melons are in season again, I will
relieve you." They kept guard for twelve months; and no word coming from
the marquis, they requested to be relieved. But their request was
refused, and in consequence they fell to plot rebellion.'

Yi Zhongnian, own brother to duke Xi, had left a
son, called Gongxun Wuzhi, who was a favourite with Xi, and had been
placed by him, so far as his robes and other distinctions were
concerned, on the same footing as a son of his own. Duke Xiang, however,
had degraded him. The two generals, therefore, associated themselves
with him to carry out their plans. There was a first cousin also of Lian
Cheng in the duke's harem, who had lost his favour, and her they
employed as a spy upon his movements, Wuzhi having declared to her that,
if their enterprise were successful, he would make her his wife.

'In winter, in the 11th month, the marquis went to
amuse himself at Gufen, and was hunting on Beiqiu, when a large boar
made his appearance. One of the attendants said, "It is the Gongzi
Pengsheng [see the Zhuan on II. xvii. 3]." The marquis was enraged and
said, "Does Pengsheng dare to show himself." With this he shot at the
creature, which stood up on its hind legs like a man, and howled. The
marquis was afraid, and fell down in his carriage, injuring one of his
feet, and losing the shoe. Having returned [to the palace where he was
lodging], he required his footman Bi to bring the shoe, and when it
could not be found, scourged him, till the blood flowed. Bi ran out of
the room, and met several assassins at the gate, who seized and bound
him. "Should I oppose you?" said Bi, baring his body, and showing them
his back, on seeing which they believed him. He then requested leave to
go in before them, when he hid the marquis, came out again, and fought
with them till he was killed in the gate. Shizhi Fenru died fighting on
the stairs, on which the assassins entered the chamber, and killed Meng
Yang [who had taken the marquis' place] in the bed. "This is not he,"
they soon cried. "It is not like him." They then discovered the duke's
foot, [where he was hiding] behind the door, murdered him, and raised up
Wuzhi in his place.

'Before this, when duke Xiang came to the
marquisate, Bao Shuya, seeing his irregularities, said, "The prince is
making the people despise him;—there will soon be disorder;" and he fled
to Ju with Xi's son Xiaobo. When the disorder broke out, Guan Yiwu and
Shao Hu fled to Lu with Jiu, another of Xi's sons.

It will be seen from this narrative that Wuzhi was
not the actual murderer of the marquis of Qi, nor indeed the first mover
to the taking of him off. Still, as he was the one who was to profit by
his death, the Chunqiu charges the deed on him. The marquis deserved his
fate.

IX. Ninth year.

1. In the [duke's] ninth year, in spring, the people
of Qi killed Wuzhi.

4. In autumn, in the seventh month, on Dingyou, there
was the burial of duke Xiang of Qi.

5. In the eighth month, on Gengshen, we fought with
the army of Qi at Ganshi, when our army received a severe defeat.

6. In the ninth month, the people of Qi took Zijiu,
and put him to death.

7. In winter, we deepened the Zhu.

COMMENTARY

Par. 1. I translate 齊人 here by 'the people of Qi,'
after the analogy of I. iv. 6, 7, et al. Zuoshi tells us, however, that
the real slayer of Wuzhi was Yong Lin, mentioned at the end of the last
Zhuan. Wuzhi had taken his place as marquis of Qi; but only a month had
elapsed, and his title had not been acknowledged by the other princes.
He is therefore mentioned in the text simply by his name.

Par. 2. Ji (Gong and Gu have 暨) was in Lu,—80 li to
the east of the dis. city of Yi (嶧), dep. Yanzhou. On the death of
Wuzhi, great officers were sent to Lu to arrange about making Jiu, who
had taken refuge there soon after the murder of duke Xiang, marquis in
his room. This was the subject of the covenant at Ji. Zuoshi explains
the fact of the duke's covenanting with them, a thing beneath his
dignity, by saying that there was at this time no ruler in Qi.

Par. 3. It does not immediately appear why the duke
should invade Qi to instate Jiu, seeing that Jiu's elevation had been
matter of covenant between him and representatives of Qi. Opposition,
probably, was anticipated from Xiaobo, and the military force was to
provide against it. But the duke's movements were not speedy enough to
effect his object. Zuoshi, both in his text and Zhuan, has 子 糾 instead
of 糾, which would indicate that Jiu was the older of the two brothers.
And the evidence does preponderate in favour of this view, though the
opposite one has many advocates of note. The Kangxi editors spend a
whole page in reviewing the question. The Zhuan on VIII. 4 states that
Xiaobo had fled to Ju, and here it is said:——Duke Huan had been
beforehand in entering Qi from Ju.'

Par. 4. It was now the ninth month since the murder
of the marquis. His burial had been deferred in consequence of the
troubles of the State.

Par. 5. Ganshi was in Qi,—in the north of pres. dis.
of Boxing (博興), dep. Qingzhou. Notwithstanding that Xiaobo had
anticipated his brother, and got possession of Qi, the duke of Lu
persevered in his efforts in favour of Jiu, and suffered this defeat.

敗績,—see on II.xiii.1. Zuoshi says:——'At this battle
the duke lost his war-chariot, but got into another, and proceeded
homewards. Qinzi and Liangzi [who had been in the chariot with him] took
his flag, and separated from him by a lower road [to deceive the enemy];
and the consequence was that they were both taken.' Thus, the duke
himself commanded in this expedition, — a fact which the text is so
constructed as to conceal.

Par. 6. It is here said that 'the people of Qi took
Zijiu, and killed him,' but in reality they were Lu hands which put him
to death. To require his death was cruel on the part of Qi. To deliver
him up, to kill him in fact, was base in the extreme on the part of Lu.
A foreigner loses all patience with Confucius and the Chunqiu, when he
finds the events of history so misrepresented in it. The Zhuan says:
——Bao Shu led an army to Lu, and said to the duke, "Zijiu is our
prince's near relative; we beg of you to take him off. Guan and Shao are
his enemies; we beg them to be delivered to us, and our prince will feel
satisfied." On this we killed Zijiu in Shengdou, when Shao Hu died with
him, while Guan Zhong asked to be kept as a prisoner. Bao Shu received
him from Lu, and set him free when they had got to Tangfu. On their
return to the capital, he informed the marquis of all the circumstances,
saying also, "Guan Yiwu's talents for government are greater than those
of Gao Xi [a minister and noble of Qi]. If you employ him as your chief
minister and helper, it will be well." The marquis followed the advice.'

Par. 7. The Zhu was a river flowing from the
northeast of Lu in a southwest direction till it joined the Yan (沇),
after which their united stream flowed on to the Si (泗). The object in
deepening it was to make it a better defence against the attempts of Qi.
The critics are all severe against duke Zhuang for wasting his people's
strength in this undertaking. It may have been foolish and useless, but
it would be hard to extract any condemnation of it from the text.

[The student who is familiar with the Analects and
Mencius will now have recognized two names well known to him; —duke Huan
of Qi, the first and in some respects the greatest of the five pa or
leaders of the princes, and Guan Zhong, or Guan Yiwu, his chief
minister.]

X. Tenth year.

1. In his tenth year, in spring, in the king's first
month, the duke defeated the army of Qi at Changzhuo.

2. In the second month, the duke made an incursion
into Song.

3. In the third month, the people of Song removed
[the State of] Su.

4. In summer, in the sixth month, an army of Qi and
an army of Song halted at Lang. The duke defeated the army of Song at
Shengqiu.

5. In autumn, in the ninth month, Jing defeated the
army of Cai at Shen, and carried Xianwu, marquis of Cai, back [to Jing].

6. In winter, in the tenth month, an army of Qi
extinguished Tan. The viscount of Tan fled to Ju.

COMMENTARY

Par. 1. Changzhuo was in Lu, but its position has
not been identified. Luo Bi (羅泌), says that of the clans of Shang
removed by king Cheng (成) to Lu, one was called the Changzhuo, as having
been located in Changzhuo. The Zhuan here is:——'The army of Qi invaded
our State, and the duke was about to fight, when one Cao Gui requested
to be introduced to him. One of Gui's fellow-villagers said him, "The
flesh-eaters [comp. Ps. xxii. 29], are planning for the occasion; what
have you to do to intermeddle?" He replied, "The flesh-eaters are poor
creatures, and cannot form any far-reaching plans." So he entered and
was introduced, when he asked the duke what encouragement he had to
fight. The duke said, "Clothes and food minister to my repose, but I do
not dare to monopolise them:—I make it a point to share them with
others." "That," replied Gui, "is but small kindness, and does not reach
to all. The people will not follow you for that. "The duke said, "In the
victims, the gems, and the silks, used in sacrifice, I do not dare to go
beyond the appointed rules:— I make it a point to be sincere." "That is
but small sincerity; it is not perfect:—the Spirits will not bless you
for that." The duke said again, "In all matters of legal process,
whether small or great, although I may not be able to search them out
thoroughly, I make it a point to decide according to the real
circumstances." "That," answered Gui, "bespeaks a leal-heartedness:——you
may venture one battle on that. When you fight, I beg to be allowed to
attend you." The duke took him with him in his chariot. The battle was
fought in Changzhuo. The duke was about to order the drums to beat an
advance, when Gui said, "Not yet;" and after the men of Qi had advanced
three times with their drums beating, he said, "Now is the time." The
army of Qi received a severe defeat; but when the duke was about to dash
after them, Gui again said, "Not yet." He then got down, and examined
the tracks left by their chariot-wheels, remounted, got on the frontbar,
and looked after the flying enemy. After this he said "Pursue;" which
the duke did. When the victory had been secured, the duke asked Gui the
reasons of what he had done. "In fighting," was the reply," all depends
on the courageous spirit. When the drums first beat, that excites the
spirit. A second advance occasions a diminution of the spirit; and with
a third, it is exhausted. With our spirit at the highest pitch we fell
on them with their spirit exhausted; and so we conquered them. But it is
difficult to fathom a great State;—I was afraid there might be an
ambuscade. I looked therefore at the traces of their wheels, and found
them all-confused; I looked after their flags, and they were
drooping:—then I gave the order to pursue them."'

Par. 2. This is the first record in the text of the
military expedition called 侵. As the word denotes (侵=漸進), it was a
stealthy incursion. Gongyang says: 觕者曰侵，精者曰伐,'an ill-ordered advance is
called qin; one in good array is called fa.' Zuoshi,
better:—有鐘鼓曰伐；無鐘鼓曰侵, 'an advance with bells and drums is called fa;
without them, qin.' So far as the text goes, this would appear to have
been a wanton attack on Song. Mao supposes that Song may have been
confederate with Qi in the previous month.

Par. 3. Su,—see on I.i.5; where it has been observed
that Su was a long way from Song. But the word 遷, 'to remove,' does not
signify that Song continued to hold possession of the old territory;—it
carried the people away and all the valuables of the State into its own
territories. The affair would seem to be commemorated in the name of
Suqian (宿遷), a dis. of Suzhou dep., in Jiangsu, which was within the
limits of Song. We shall find 遷 hereafter as a neuter verb, where the
signification is different.

Par. 4. Lang,—see VIII. 1. Shengqiu is referred to
the dis. of Ziyang (滋陽), dep. Yanzhou. If this identification be
correct, then the allied forces had moved from Lang; or perhaps they had
separated, and the army of Song gone north to Shengqiu. The Zhuan
says:——'The armies of Qi and Song were halting at Lang, when Yan, a son
of duke Huan, said, "The army of Song is ill drawn up, and may be
defeated. If Song be defeated, Qi will be obliged to retire. I beg leave
to attack the troops of Song." The duke refused, but he stole out at the
Yu gate, and having covered his horses with tigers' skins, fell upon the
enemy. The duke followed to support him, when they inflicted a great
defeat on the army of Song at Shengqiu; and the army of Qi withdrew from
Lu.'

Par. 5. Here for the first time, Chu, a great Power,
appears on the stage of the Chunqiu, though we have met with it already
more than once in the Zhuan. Jing was the original name of Chu, and in
the Chunqiu it is thus named down to the 1st year of duke Xi. The chiefs
of Chu were at first viscounts, with the surname Mi (羋; the bleating of
a sheep), who traced their lineage up to the prehistoric times,
pretending to be descended from Zhuanxu. The representative of the line
in the times of Wen and Wu was Yuxiong (鬻熊); and his great-grandson,
Xiongyi (熊繹), was invested by king Cheng with the lands of Jing Man
(荊蠻), or 'Jing of the wild south,' and the title of viscount. His
capital was Danyang (丹陽), referred to a place, 7 li southeast from the
pres. dis. city of Guizhou (歸州), dep. Yichang (宜昌), Hubei. In B. C. 886,
Xiongqu (熊渠) usurped the title of king, which was afterwards dropped for
a time, but permanently resumed by Xiong Tong (熊通), known as king Wu, in
B. C. 703, who also moved the capital to Ying (郢), 10 li north of the
pres. dep. city of Jingzhou (荊州). The viscount of Chu at this first
appearance of the House in the text was king Wen (文王), a son of Wu, by
name Xiongzi (熊貲).

Shen belonged to Cai, and was in the borders of
pres. dis. of Ruyang (汝陽), dep. Runing, Henan. Xianwu (Gu has 武) was the
蔡季 of II. xvii. 5. The style of the par. is unusual, the name of the
State—king—being mentioned, and no 'viscount of Jing,' or 'officer.' Du
finds in this an evidence of the still barbarous condition of Jing or
Chu unacquainted with the forms of the States of 'the Middle country.'

The Zhuan says:——The marquis Ai of Cai had married a
daughter of the House of Chen, and the marquis of Xi had married
another. When the latter lady [息媯'Gui of Xi.' Gui was the surname of
Chen] on one occasion was going back to Xi, she passed by Cai, and the
marquis said, 'She is my sister-in-law." He detained her, therefore, and
saw her, not treating her as a guest should be treated. When the marquis
of Xi heard of it, he was enraged, and sent a messenger to king Wen of
Chu, saying, 'Attack me, and I will ask assistance from Cai, when you
can attack it." The viscount of Chu did so; and in autumn, in the '9th
month, Chu defeated the army of Cai at Shen, and carried off the
marquis, Xianwu.'

Par. 6. Tan was a small State, whose lords were
viscounts, within the circle of Qi. Its chief town was 70 li to the
southeast of the dis. city of Licheng, dep. Ji'nan. This is the first
instance in the text of the 'extinction' of a State. The term implies
the destruction of its ruling House, the abolition of its sacrifices,
and the absorption of the people and territory by the prevailing Power.
The Zhuan says:—'When the marquis of Qi [i.e., the present marquis] fled
from the State [see the Zhuan on VIII. 5], and was passing by Tan, the
viscount showed him no courtesy. When he entered it again, and the other
princes were all congratulating him, the viscount did not make his
appearance. In winter, therefore, an army of Qi extinguished Tan, which
had behaved so improperly. The viscount fled to Ju, having formerly made
a covenant with the lord of it.'

XI. Eleventh year.

1. It was the [duke's] eleventh, year, the spring,
the king's first month.

2. In summer, in the fifth month, on Wuyin, the duke
defeated an army of Song at Zi.

3. In autumn, there were great floods in Song.

4. In winter, a daughter of the king went to her home
in Qi.

COMMENTARY

Par. 2. Zi was in Lu,—in dep. of Yanzhou; difft.
from the Zi in I.8. The Zhuan says:——'Because of the action at Shengqiu,
Song now made an incursion into our State. The duke withstood the enemy;
and pressing on them before they were formed in order of battle, he
defeated them at Zi.' Then follows an explanation of various military
terms:——'In all military expeditions, when an action is forced before
the enemy's army is drawn up, the text says,..."defeated such and such
an army." When both sides are drawn up, it is said,... "fought," "a
battle was fought." When there has been a great overthrow, the style
is,..."disgracefully defeated." When any one of extraordinary valour is
taken, it is said,..."vanquished so and so." When the defeat is utter,
it is said, "took such and such an army." When the army of the capital
is defeated, it is said, "The king's army was disgracefully defeated in
such and such a place."'

Par. 3. Comp. II. 1.5. The Zhuan says:——'In autumn,
there were great floods in Song, and the duke sent a messenger with his
condolences, saying, "Heaven has sent down excessive rains, to the
injury of the millet for sacrifice. I feel that I must condole with
you." The answer was, "I am as an orphan, and must confess my want of
reverence, for which Heaven has sent down this plague. And moreover I
have caused you sorrow, and beg to acknowledge the condescension of your
message." Zang Wenzhong said, "Song must be going to flourish. Yu and
Tang took the blame on themselves, and they prospered grandly. Jie and
Zhou threw the blame on others, and their ruin came swiftly. Moreover
when a State meets with calamity, it is the rule for the prince to call
himself an orphan. With language showing anxious fear, and using the
right name, Song cannot be far from prosperity." Afterwards it was known
that the answer was in the words of duke Zhuang's son Yuyue, and then
Zangsun Da said, "This man deserves to be ruler. He has a heart of pity
for the people."

Par. 4. See on I.3,4,7. Like his predecessor, duke
Huan of Qi had sought a royal bride; and the arrangements for the
marriage had, as before, been put under the management of the marquis of
Lu. Zuoshi says that 'the marquis of Qi came to meet his bride, Gong
Ji,' where Kung (共=恭) is the honorary title by which the lady was known
after her death.

[The Zhuan adds here:——'In the action at Shengqiu,
[in the 10th year] the duke with his arrow called Jin Pugu. [金僕姑 might
be translated "Steel Servant-lady," but the last two characters are
often written difftly.] shot Nangong Zhangwan, after which the spearman
on the right, Chuansun, took him prisoner. He was subsequently released
at the request of the people of Song, but the duke of Song ridiculed
him, saying, "Formerly, I respected you; but since you have been the
prisoner of Lu, I respect you no more." This annoyed
Zhangwan.']

XII. Twelfth year.

1. In the [duke's] twelfth year, in spring, in the
king's first month, duke [Yin's] third daughter, [who had been married
to the marquis] of Ji, went [from Lu] to Xi.

2. It was summer, the fourth month.

3. In autumn, in the eighth month, on Jiawu, Wan of
Song murdered his ruler Jie, and his great officer Qiuwmu.

4. In winter, in the tenth month, Wan of Song fled to
Chen.

COMMENTARY

Par. 1. The marriage of this lady, such as it was,
was entered in I. vii. 1;—see the note on which par. We have seen in
what circumstances the marquis of Ji finally abandoned his State (IV.
4), leaving his wife-proper unburied. It would seem that the lady in the
text had then returned to Lu; but as the marquis' brother had been
admitted into Qi with the city of Xi (III. 4), and there maintained the
sacrifices to his ancestors, she considered that as her home, and now
proceeded to it. Her husband was probably by this time among the
departed chiefs, who had their shrines in the ancestral temple. Her
conduct, from a Chinese point of view, was specially virtuous. The force
of 歸 here='went to her home.'

Par. 3. The Zhuan says:——Wan of Song murdered duke
Min in Mengze; and. meeting Qiumu in the gate, he killed him with a slap
of his hand. He then met the chief minister, Du, [see II. ii. 1] on the
west of the eastern palace, and also killed him. He raised Ziyou to the
dukedom, while all the sons of former dukes fled to Xiao, except Yuyue
[see the Chuen on XI. 3], who fled to Bo, to besiege which Nangong Niu
and Menghuo led a force.'

The Wan here is, of course, the Nangong Zhangwan of
the Zhuan at the end of last year, the Zhang (長) there being probably
his designation. Qiumu was the name of the officer who was killed, and
some critics, thinking it necessary to account for his being mentioned
merely by his name, say there was nothing good about him worthy of
commendation. The par. is one in point to show the futility of looking
for praise or blame in such matters. The murderer is here mentioned by
his name, and so also is the officer who died in attempting to punish
him for his deed.

Par. 4. The Zhuan is:——In the 10th month, Shu Daxin
of Xiao, and the descendants of the dukes Dai, Wu, Xuan, Mu, and Zhuang,
with an army of Cao, attacked the force that was besieging Bo. They
killed Nangong Niu in the fight, and afterwards killed Ziyou in the
capital, raising duke Huan [the Yuyue mentioned in two previous Zhuan]
in his place. Menghuo fled to Wey, and Nangong Wan to Chen. Wan took his
mother with him in a carriage [a barrow] which he himself pushed along,
accomplishing all the journey [more than 70 miles] in one day. The
people of Song requested Wey to deliver up Menghuo to them; and when
there was an unwillingness to do so, Shi Qizi said, 'Refuse him not.
Wickedness is the same all under heaven. If we protect the man who has
done wickedly in Sung, of what advantage will our protecting him be? To
gain a fellow and lose a State; to favour wickedness and cast away
friendship, is not wise counsel." On this the people of Wey gave Huo up.
Song also requested Nangong Wan from Chen, offering a bribe at the same
time. The people of Chen employed a woman to make him drunk, and then
bound him up in a rhinoceros' hide. By the time that he reached Song,
his hands and feet appeared through the hide. The people of Sung made
pickle both of him and Menghuo.'

Thus Zhangwan paid the penalty of his guilt; but as
we learn this only from the Zhuan, and it is not said in the text 宋人殺萬,
the critics have much to say on the condemnation of the people of Song,
which the silence of the text implies! Then it does not mention the
burial of duke Min (閔公), whom Wan murdered, and that is understood to
indicate Confucius' disapproval of him! It is surprising that the Kangxi
editors should not have been able to emancipate themselves from the
bondage in which the early interpreters of the Chunqiu
held.

XIII. Thirteenth year.

1. In the [duke's] thirteenth year, in spring, the
marquis of Qi, an officer of Song, an officer of Chen, an officer of
Cai, and an officer of Zhu, had a meeting at Beixing.

2. In summer, in the sixth month, an army of Qi
extinguished Sui.

3. It was autumn, the seventh month.

4. In winter, the duke had a meeting with the marquis
of Qi, when they made a covenant at Ke.

COMMENTARY

Par. 1. Beixing was in Qi,—in the pres. dis. of
Dong'e, dept. Yanzhou. The meeting here was called by the marquis of Qi,
as Zuoshi says,'to settle the disorder of Song.' But it has a greater
historical interest as the first of the gatherings of princes of States
under the presidency of one of their number, who was acknowledged, or
wished to be acknowledged, as a sort of viceroy. Huan of Qi was the
first to attain to this position, and his leadership dates, according to
many, from this year, B. C. 680, though it could hardly be said to be
generally recognized till two years later. Whether he had the king's
commission to undertake the pacification of Song does not clearly
appear.

Guliang reads 齊人 instead of 齊候, though he believes
that the marquis is really intended, and that the duke of Song and the
lords of Chen, Cai, and Zhu were the other 人, or 'men' present at the
meeting, the calling them 'men' and denuding them of their titles being
the device of Confucius to condemn their whole proceeding! The Kangxi
editors, maintaining the received text of 候, yet agree with Gu in
interpreting all the other 人 of the princes. Of course, if the reading 候
be retained, there can be no censure in the 人, as applied to the other
princes, for Huan was the greatest sinner of them all; and to interpret
the word as 'people,' to indicate that the presidency of the States was
now given by a kind of 'general consent' to Huan, which is the view of
Su Che (蘇轍) and many others, only mystifies the whole subject. We must
take 人 as in the translation;—see I.i.5, II.xi.1, et al.;—as yet the
other princes distrusted Qi, and only sent officers to the conference.

Par. 2. Sui was a small State, within the limits of
Lu, and near to Cheng (郕), whose chiefs had the surname of Gui (媯), as
being descended from Shun. Its chief town was 30 li to the northwest of
the pres. dis. city of Ningyang, dep. Yanzhou. Zuoshi says that 'no
officer had been sent from it to the meeting at Beixing, and in the
summer, a force from Qi extinguished it, and occupied it with a body of
men on guard.' As to the translation of 人 here by 'army,' see on I. ii.
2.

Par. 3. See I. vi. 3; et al.

Par. 4. Ke was in Qi,— pres. dis. of Dong'e, dept.
Yanzhou. Zuoshi says that 'this covenant was the first step to peace
between Lu and Qi.' Gongyang relates a story in connection with it,
which has obtained general currency and belief:——When duke Zhuang was
about to meet with Huan, the officer Cao [the Cao Gui of the Zhuan on X.
1] advanced to him and said, "What is your feeling, O marquis, in view
of this meeting?" The duke said, "It were better for me to die than to
live." "In that case," said Cao, "do you prove yourself a match for the
ruler, and I will prove myself a match for his minister."

"Very well," replied the duke; and the meeting was
held. When the duke ascended the altar, Cao followed him with his sword
in his hand. Guan Zhong advanced, and said, "What does the marquis
require?" Cao replied, "Our cities are overthrown, and our borders
oppressed. Does your ruler not consider it?" "What then does he
require?" the other repeated, and Cao said, "We wish to ask the
restitution of the country on the north of the Wen." Guan Zhong looked
at Huan, and said, "Does your lordship grant the request?" The marquis
said, "Yes." Cao then requested a covenant, and duke Huan descended from
the altar, and made a covenant. When this was done, Cao threw away his
sword, and took his leave. A forced covenant like this might have been
disregarded, but duke Huan did not break it. The officer Cao might have
been regarded as his enemy, but duke Huan did not resent his conduct.
The good faith of duke Huan began from this covenant at Ke to be
acknowledged throughout the kingdom.'

[The Zhuan adds here:—The people of Song renounced
the engagements at the meeting of Beixing.']

XIV. Fourteenth year.

1. In the [duke's] fourteenth year, in spring, an
army of Qi, an army of Chen, and an army of Cao, invaded Song.

4. In winter, the earl of Shan had a meeting with the
marquis of Qi, the duke of Song, the marquis of Wey, and the earl of
Zheng, at Juan.

COMMENTARY

Par. 1. This invasion was in consequence of the
fact mentioned in the last Zhuan. Hu An'guo says that the 人 here
indicates that 'the leaders were of inferior rank and the forces few,'
but the Kangxi editors demur to such a canon as applicable to all cases
of the use of 人. He adds that for 20 years the marquis of Qi did not
send out a 'great officer' in command of a military expedition, being
occupied with consolidating the power of the State for the great object
of his ambition; but this assertion they show to be false. No doubt, the
人 here indicates that the princes of the States named did not themselves
command the forces. I translate the term by 'army.'

Par. 2. The earl of Shan,—see on I.3. Zuoshi simply
says:——In summer, the earl of Shan joined them [the armies in the above
par.], received the submission of Song, and returned.' The marquis of
Qi, as Du says, had requested the aid of the king to coerce Song to the
acknowledgement of its engagements; and the result was this mission of
the earl of Shan. It was an important move of the marquis to obtain the
royal sanction to his claim to be the leader of the princes.

[The Zhuan gives here a long narrative about the
affairs of Zheng:——Duke Li [see II.xv. 9] of Zheng stole into the
country from Li; and at Daling, he captured Fu Xia, who said, "If you
let me go, I will undertake to effect your restoration." The duke,
accordingly, made a covenant with him, and forgave him. In the sixth
month, on Jiazi, Xia killed the actual earl [the text simply is 鄭子, "a
son of Zheng"] and his two sons, and restored duke Li.

'Before this, two serpents, one inside and one
outside, had fought together in the southern gate of the capital, till
the inside one was killed. It was six years after this when duke Li
entered. The duke [of Lu] heard of the circumstance, and asked Shen Xu,
saying, "Has Tu's restoration come from that supernatural appearance?"
The answer was, "When men are full of fear, their breath, as it were,
blazes up, and brings such things. Monsters and monstrous events take
their rise from men. If men afford no cause for them, they do not arise
of themselves. When men abandon the constant course of virtue, then
monstrosities appear. Therefore it is that there are monsters and
monstrous events."

'When duke Li had entered Zheng, he put Fu Xia to
death, and sent a message to Yuan Fan [see the Zhuan, after I. v. 2. Fan
had taken a principal part in the establishing of Ziyi], saying, "Fu Xia
was divided in his allegiance to me, and for such a case Zhou has its
regular penalty;—he has suffered for his crime. To all who restored me
and had no wavering in their allegiance, I promised that they should be
great officers of the first class; and now I wish to consider the matter
with you, uncle. When I fled from the State, you had no words to speak
for me in it; now that I have reentered, you again have no thought about
me:—I feel displeased at this." Yuan Fan replied, "Your ancestor, duke
Huan, gave command to my ancestor to take charge of the stone-shrines in
the ancestral temple. While the altars of the land and grain had their
lord [in the ruling earl], what greater treachery could there have been
than to turn one's thoughts to another out of the State? So long as he
presided over those altars, among all the people of the State, who was
there that was not his subject? That a subject should not have a double
heart is the law of Heaven. Ziyi held the earldom for fourteen
years;—did not those who took measures to call in your lordship show a
divided allegiance? Of the children of duke Zhuang, your father, there
are still 8 men; if they were all to proffer offices, dignities, and
other bribes, so as thereby to accomplish their object, what would
become of your lordship? But I have heard your commands." And forthwith
he strangled himself.']

Par. 3. Jing,—see X. 5. The Zhuan says:—'The marquis
Ai [Xianwu of X. 5] of Cai, in revenge for the defeat at Shen, talked
with the viscount of Chu admiringly about the lady Gui, wife of the
marquis of Xi. The viscount went to Xi, and entered the city with the
appliances of a feast to entertain the marquis, and took the opportunity
to extinguish the State. He also took the marquis's wife back with him
to Chu, where she bore to him Du'ao and another son, who was afterwards
king Cheng; but all this time she never spake a word. The viscount
asking the reason of her silence, she replied, "It has been my lot to
serve two husbands. Though I have not been able to die, how should I
venture to speak?" The viscount, considering that the marquis of Cai had
been the occasion of his extinguishing Xi, proceeded to invade Cai [to
please the lady]; and in autumn, in the 8th month, Chu entered the
capital of Cai. The superior man may say that in the case of the marquis
Ai of Cai we have an illustration of what is said in the Books of Shang
[Shu, IV. vii. Pt.i.12] about the easy progress of wickedness, that it
is "like a fire blazing out in a plain, which cannot be approached, and
still less can be beaten out."'

Par. 4. Juan was in Wey,—in the pres. dep. of
Dongchang (東昌), Shandong, 20 li to the east of the city of Pu Zhou (濮州).
Zuoshi says that this meeting was held 'because of the submission of
Song.' From this time, the position of the marquis of Qi may be said to
have been fully acknowledged by all the States of what was the then
'China proper.' The presence of the earl of Shan, the king's
representative, gave the royal sanction to his claim to be the leader of
the other princes, and the lords of Song, Wey, and Zheng, who had
formerly resented his ambition and stood aloof from him, now gave in
their adhesion.

XV. Fifteenth year.

1. In the [duke's] fifteenth year, in spring, the
marquis of Qi, the duke of Song, the marquis of Chen, the marquis of
Wey, and the earl of Zheng, had a meeting at Juan.

2. In summer, [duke Huan's] wife, the lady Jiang,
went to Qi.

3. In autumn, a body of men from Song, one from Qi,
and one from Zhu, invaded Ni.

4. A body of men from Zheng made an inroad into Song.

5. It was winter, the tenth month.

COMMENTARY

Par. 1. We have the same princes here, as in the
meeting at the same place a month or two before, with the addition of
the marquis of Chen. Zuoshi says that that now 'for the first time Qi
was ba, or leader of the States,' which is true in so far as the
representative of the king had returned to Zhou, and without his
presence, the other princes acknowledged the authority of Huan. The earl
of Zheng here, and at the previous meeting, was, of course, Tu, or duke
Li.

Par. 2. Here again the restless and unprincipled Wen
Jiang appears. What now took her to Qi we do not know, but her going
there was contrary to rule. The daughter of one State, married into
another, might at certain times revisit her parents; but, after their
death, she could only send a minister to ask after the welfare of her
brothers and other relatives.

Par. 3. For 郳 here Gongyang has 兒. It is the same as
in V. 3, and was afterwards known as 'little Zhu (小邾' Zuoshi says that
'the princes invaded Ni in the interest of Song.' Song is entered before
Qi, as being the principal party in the expedition, which moreover was a
small one. There is nothing in this circumstance inconsistent, as some
think, with the presidency of the marquis of Qi.

Par. 4. While Song was engaged with the expedition
against Ni, Zheng took advantage of the opportunity to make a raid upon
it (Zuoshi says, 間之而侵宋). Tu of Zheng owed his first elevation to the
earldom to Song, and subsequently the position which he maintained in
Li; but he had never been really on good terms with duke Zhuang; and now
that he was dead, and the ruling duke had his hands full, he took the
opportunity to make the inroad in the text. His doing so was contrary to
the obligations under which both Song and Zheng stood to
Qi.M

XVI. Sixteenth year.

1. It was the [duke's] sixteenth year, the spring,
the king's first month.

2. In summer, a body of men from Song, one from Qi,
and one from Wey, invaded Zheng.

3. In autumn, Jing invaded Zheng.

4. In winter, in the twelfth month, [the duke] had a
meeting with the marquis of Qi, the duke of Song, the marquis of Chen,
the marquis of Wey, the earl of Zheng, the baron of Xu, the earl of Hua,
and the viscount of Teng, when they made a covenant together in You.

5. Ke, viscount of Zhu, died.

COMMENTARY

Par. 2 This expedition was 'on account of Song,'—to
punish Zheng for its inroad on Song in the previous autumn. Song, as in
the attack on Ni, commanded in the expedition, and its men are therefore
mentioned before those of Qi.

Par. 3. Chu or Jing here takes another step in
advance, and comes more threateningly near to the States of the 'Middle
kingdom.' Chen, Cai, Xu, and Zheng had all to bear the brunt of its
ambitious inroads; and from this time Zheng especially became the field
of contention between it and Qi with the other Powers dominating in the
north. The reason for its present invasion of Zheng is given by
Zuoshi:——'When the earl of Zheng entered the State from Li [see the
Zhuan after XIV. 2], he was dilatory in announcing the thing to Chu, in
consequence of which Chu this autumn invaded Zheng, and penetrated as
far as Li:—because of the earl's want of the proper courtesy.'

[The Zhuan adds:——'The earl of Zheng set himself to
deal with those who had taken part in the disturbances connected with
the death of Yong Jiu [see the Zhuan on II. xv. 4]. In the 9th month he
put to death the Gongzi E [there must be a mistake here either of the
name 閼 or of 公子 or 公孫 and cut off the feet of Qiangchu [these men had
been partizans of Zhai Zhong]. Gongfu Dingshu [公父 is the clanname; 叔 the
designation; 定 the hon. title] fled to Wey, but after 3 years the earl
restored him, saying, "Gongshu [brother of duke Zhuang, the Gongshu Duan
of the Zhuan, I. i. 3. He was grandfather to this Gongfu Dingshu] must
not be left without posterity in Zheng." He made him enter the city in
the 10th month, saying that it was "a good month," with reference to ten
as the completion of the numerals. The superior man may say that
Qiangchu was not able to defend his feet [a poor joke on his punishment;
meaning that he should have fled from the State].

Par. 4. This was no doubt an important gathering,
and might be called the inauguration of the marquis of Qi's presidency.
We have here the phrase 同盟 'they covenanted together,' which has not
occurred before; and the critics make great efforts to determine its
meaning. Gong makes it =同欲, 'covenanted with a common desire;' to which
Guliang adds that the common object was 'to honour Zhou.' Zuoshi says
that the meeting was held with reference to the settlement of the
affairs of Zheng and its submission (鄭成) which makes Du define the
phrase as =服異, 'the submission of all who had had a different mind,'
i.e., had been unwilling to acknowledge the authority of Qi. Where the
meaning is thus undetermined, the safe plan is to keep to a literal
rendering. The contracting parties were numerous; they united in
acknowledging the presidency of the marquis of Qi, and undertook with
him to support the House of Zhou. You, where the meeting was held, was
in Song,—in the pres. dis. of Kaocheng (考城), dep. Guide. Gongyang reads
公 before 會 and certainly we must understand that it was duke Zhuang
himself who was present on the part of Lu. Du, indeed, supposes that the
absence of any subject before 會 indicates that the representative of Lu
was some officer of inferior rank (微者 while Hu An'guo and others,
believing that the duke was present, think that the 公 was purposely left
out to conceal the fact.

Up to this par., Wey has always taken precedence of
Chen, where their marquises were mentioned together, but here and
subsequently Chen is enumerated first. It is supposed that the marquis
of Qi made this arrangement in honour of Shun, whose descendants held
Chen, and to mark his sense of the importance of the State as a bulwark,
though small in itself, against the encroachments of Chu. Huo here is
difft. from the small State of the same name in III. 5. This was an
earldom, whose descendants had the Zhou surname of Ji (姬) Its chief town
was Fei (費) 20 li south of the pres. dis. city of Yanshi, dep. Henan.
Between 許男 and 滑伯 Gong and Gu both have 曹伯.

Par. 5. This Ke was the name of Yifu, lord of Zhu,
who appears in I.i.2. At that time Zhu was only a State attached to Lu.
Here its chief appears as a viscount. The only reasonable account of
this is that given by Du Yu, that the marquis of Qi had obtained from
the king a patent of nobility for Zhu. Guliang seems to think, absurdly
enough, that the ennobling was from the pencil of Confucius!

[The Zhuan here calls our attention to the affairs
of Jin:——'The king sent the duke of Guo to confer on the earl of Quwo
the title of marquis of Jin,—to maintain only one army.'

'Before this, duke Wu of Jin had attacked Yi, and
captured Guizhu [Yi was in Zhou; and the city held by Guizhu, a great
officer of the court], whom, however, he let go on the petition of Wei
Guo. But for this service, Guo got no acknowledgment, and he therefore
raised an insurrection, and said to the people of Jin, "Attack Yi with
me, and take its territory.' Accordingly he attacked it with an army of
Jin, and killed Guizhu. Jifu, duke of Zhou, fled to the State of Guo,
and it was not till after the accession of king Hui that he was
restored.']

XVII. Seventeenth year.

1. In the [duke's seventeenth year, in spring, the
people of Qi made Zhan of Zheng prisoner.

2. In summer, the men of Qi in Sui were all
slaughtered.

3. In autumn, Zhan of Zheng made his escape from Qi
[to Lu].

4. In winter there were many deer.

COMMENTARY

Par. 1. This Zhan (Gong has 瞻) was chief minister to
Ziyi earl of Zheng, when Tu succeeded in regaining the State;——see the
Zhuan after XIV. 2. He had consented to the murder of Ziyi by Fu Xia,
and duke Li had retained him in his office. It is not clear why Qi
seized him at this time. Zuoshi says it was because Zheng had not been
to the court of Qi. Gongyang thinks it was because he was a worthless,
artful man. The 齊人 seems to indicate that for whatever reason he was
seized, the act met with general approval.

Par. 2. The extinction of Sui by Qi was related in
XIII. 2, where the Zhuan adds that Qi stationed men in guard over the
territory. A sufficient number of the people, it appears, had been left
to deal with the guards of Qi in the way here described. The Zhuan
says:——"The Sui clans of Yin, Ling, Gonglou, and Xusui feasted the
guards of Qi, made them drunk, and killed them;—the men of Qi were all
slaughtered." For 殲 Kungyang has 瀐, with the same meaning. Du Yu takes
it in the sense of——made a complete end of themselves,' attributing
their slaughter to their own carelessness. The translation inverts the
order of the text, in order to bring out the historical meaning.

Par. 3. The 來 implies, of course, that it was to Lu
that Zhan came; and this brought on Lu the anger of Qi.

Par. 4. The mi was a species of deer;—see Mencius I.
Pt. I.ii.1. It is described as a species of the lu (鹿), by which latter
term is meant the axis deer. But the mi is larger and of a dark greenish
colour; it is fond of marshy places, and is said to shed its horns about
the time of the winter solstice. I think it must be our red deer, or a
variety of it. These creatures appeared in such numbers, as to be a
plague. So thinks Du; others think it so only the unusualness of their
appearing that is recorded.

XVIII. Eighteenth year.

1. In the [duke's] eighteenth year, in spring, in the
king's third month, the sun was eclipsed.

2. In summer, the duke pursued the Rong to the west
of the Ji.

3. In autumn there were yu.

4. It was winter, the tenth month.

COMMENTARY

Par. 1. The eclipse which is here intended took
place on April 6th, B. C. 675, on the day Renzi (壬子), the 1st of the 5th
month. There is in the text therefore an error of one month, even if we
suppose another intercalary. It will be observed that the record is
imperfect, the day of the eclipse not being given.

[The Zhuan relates here:——'This spring, the duke of
Guo and the marquis of Jin appeared at the king's court. The king
feasted them, supplying them with new, sweet, spirits, and conferring
gifts on them to encourage their festivity. To each of them he gave five
pairs of jade ornaments and three horses;—which was contrary to
propriety. When the king bestows his favours on the princes, as their
titles and rank are different, so also should his offerings be. He does
not take the offerings of one, and, as it were, lend them to another.'

'The duke of Guo the marquis of Jin, and the earl of
Zheng, sent duke Zhuang of Yuan to meet the king's bride in Chen, who
came accordingly to the capital. She became queen Hui.']

Par. 2. Zuo says that the coming from the pursuit of
the Rong is not mentioned and is in fact concealed; but surely it is
implied in that pursuit of them. The Rong,—see I.ii.1. The Ji,—see the
Shu, III.Bk.I.Pt.i.20.

Par. 3. I cannot tell what the yu was or is;—see the
Shi, II.v.V.8. The Shuo wen 說文 defines it as 短狐 'a short fox,' but that
is merely another name for the creature. Du Yu gives the same name, and
adds:——'It spurts out sand on men from its mouth.' The Ben cao calls it
'the archer.' The Kangxi dict. quotes another account of it, that it is
like a turtle, has three feet, is produced in the southern Yue, and is
also called 'the shadow-shooter,' because, being in the water and a man
being on the shore, it can kill him by darting at his shadow. The same
account adds that, acc. to some, it spurts sand on people, which
penetrates their skin, and produces such an irritation, that it becomes
quite a plague. These statements lead us to think of some kind of fly,
produced from the water, and inflicting a painful bite. It was peculiar
to the country south of Lu, and its appearing there in great numbers
this autumn made the thing be recorded.

This perhaps is the proper explanation of the par.;
but many critics consider that some kind of locust is intended, and that
instead of 蜮 we should read—some say 蟘, some say * This view is
ingeniously supported by Wang Tao. A third view, that Zhan of Zheng, who
had taken refuge in Lu from Qi, (XVII.3), is intended, as a cheat and
deceiver, 蜮 being intended to suggest 惑, must be at once rejected.

[To the last par. the Zhuan appends:——'Before this,
king Wu of Chu had conquered Quan, and entrusted the government of it to
Dou Min, who held it and rebelled. The king besieged Quan, took it, and
put Min to death, removing also the people to Nachu, where he put them
under the charge of Yan Ao. When king Wen succeeded to Wu, he invaded
Shen along with the people of Ba, when he so frightened the army of Ba,
that the people revolted from Chu, attacked Nachu, took it, and advanced
to attack the gate of the capital. Yan Ao made his escape from them by
swimming across the Yong, but the viscount of Chu, put him to death. His
kindred in consequence raised an insurrection; and this winter, the
people of Ba took advantage of their movement to invade
Chu.']

XIX. Nineteenth year.

1. It was the [duke's] nineteenth year, the spring,
the king's first month.

2. It was summer, the fourth month.

3. In autumn, Jie, a son of duke [Huan], was
escorting to Juan a daughter to accompany to the harem the wife of an
officer of Chen, when he took occasion to make a covenant with the
marquis of Qi and the duke of Song.

4. [Duke Huan's] wife, the lady Jiang went to Ju.

5. In winter, a body of men from Qi, a body from
Song, and one from Chen, invaded our western borders.

COMMENTARY

Parr. 1, 2. See I. vi. 7; et al. [After par. 1, the
last Zhuan is continued:——In spring, the viscount of Chu met them, and
sustained a great defeat at Jin; and on his return to the city, Yuquan
[the porter of the gate] refused to admit him. On this he proceeded to
attack Huang, and defeated its army at Queling. As he was returning, he
fell ill at Jiao, and died in summer, on Gengshen, in the 6th month.
Yuquan buried him in Xishi after which he killed himself, and was buried
in Diehuang.

'Before this, Yuquan had addressed a vehement
remonstrance to the viscount, and when the viscount would not follow it,
he proceeded to threaten him with a weapon, for fear of which the other
adopted his advice. Yuquan said, "I have frightened my ruler with a
weapon; no crime could be greater." He then cut off his own feet. The
people of Chu made him their grand porter, and styled him Taibo, making
the office also hereditary to his descendants. The superior man will say
that Yuquan loved his prince. He remonstrated with him till he led
himself to a severe punishment; and after that punishment, he still did
not forget to urge on his prince to what was good.']

Par. 3. 媵者送女之稱, 'Ying is the name used for escorting
a young lady.' There is much difference of opinion about the par. Who
the lady was, and who 'the man of Chen,' was, are questions greatly
agitated. My own view in the translation is that defended by the Kangxi
editors, and I will give their note on the passage:——'Gong and Gu both
think that the young lady was a daughter of the House of Lu, who was
being escorted to the harem of the wife of the marquis of Chen. Hu is of
opinion that "the man of Chen" was not the marquis, but some one of
inferior rank. Cheng Yi, however, thinks that some great House of Juan
was marrying a daughter to an officer of Chen, and that Jie is here
escorting a daughter of his own by a concubine to go and accompany her
to her harem. Now, according to Kong Yingda, ladies intended for such a
duty were escorted to the State from which the wife proper was to be
married, that they might follow her from thence; and the words of the
text, 于鄄 "to Juan" seem to determine in favour of Cheng's
interpretation. Yingda, indeed, to meet the view of Gong and Gu, says
that Juan belonged to Wey; that Chen was marrying a lady of the House of
Wey; that Jie was escorting his charge to Wey; and that when he got to
Juan, he halted with her, and made a covenant, as related. But if the
case had been thus, we should have read 至鄄, 'when he came to Juan,' and
not 于鄄. That phrase shows that all the escorting was to Juan.'

With regard to the action of Jie's leaving or
delaying the object of his journey, and making a covenant with Qi and
Song, of course he had no authority for it from duke Zhuang. Great
officers, however, had a discretionary power in such matters. If they
could do good service to their State by taking occasion from the
circumstances in which they found themselves to undertake a political
office, they might do so:——but at their own risk.

Par. 4. Wen Jiang was a Messalina. The stories told
in the "History of the States" of this and a subsequent visit to Ju are
very filthy.

[The Zhuan has here a narrative about troubles at
court:——'Before this, a lady Yao had been a favourite with king Zhuang,
and bore him a son, called Zitui, who also was a favourite, and had for
his tutor Wei Guo. When king Hui succeeded to the throne, he took the
garden of Wei Guo to make a park for himself. As the mansion of Bian Bo
was near to the royal palace, he also appropriated it; and he took their
fields as well from Ziqin, Zhu Gui, and Zhanfu, keeping back moreover
the allowances of his cook.' Because of these things, Wei Guo, Bian Bo,
Shi Su [the cook], Zhanfu, Ziqin, and Zhu Gui raised an insurrection,
and allied themselves with the Su clan.'

'In autumn, the five great officers raised the
standard of Zitui to supersede the king; but they were unsuccessful, and
fled to Wen, while the chief of the Su clan fled to Wey with Zitui. Then
an army of Wey and one of Yan attacked Zhou, and in winter placed Zitui
on the throne.']

Par. 5. The reasons for this confederation against
Lu were, probably, its reception of Zhan of Zheng, when he fled from Qi,
(XVII. 3), and something connected with the proceedings of Jie, in the
autumn of this year.

XX. Twentieth year.

1. In the [duke's] twentieth year, in spring, in the
king's second month, [duke Huan's] wife, the lady Jiang, went to Ju.

2. In summer, there was a great disaster from fire in
Qi.

3. It was autumn, the seventh month.

4. In winter, a body of men from Qi smote the Rong.

COMMENTARY

Par. 1. See on the 4th par. of last year.

[The Zhuan here resumes the narrative introduced
after par. 4 of last year:——'This spring, the earl of Zheng attempted to
harmonize the royal House, but without success; but he seized Zhongfu of
Yan. In summer, he brought the king back with him, who took up his
residence in Li. In autumn, the king and the earl entered into Wu, from
which they surprised Chengzhou, brought away the valuable articles from
it, and returned to Li. In winter, king Zhuang's son Tui feasted the
five great officers, when all the royal music and pantomimic dances were
performed. The earl of Zheng heard of it, and said to Shu of Guo, "This
I have heard, that when sorrow or joy is unseasonable, calamity is sure
to come. Now king Zhuang's son Tui is singing and dancing as if he were
never tired; —it is being joyous over calamity. When the minister of
Crime executes the penalty of death, the ruler does not have his table
fully spread;—how much less would he dare to be joyous over calamity!
What calamity could be greater than to take violent possession of the
king's throne? When one, in a time of calamity, forgets to be sorrowful,
sorrow is sure to come to him. Why should we not restore the king?" The
duke of Guo said, "It is what I desire to do.."]

Par. 2. See II.xiv.4. Gongyang, indeed, says that
大災=大瘠, 'great emaciation;' i.e., there was a great plague affecting
people's health in Qi. But this meaning of 災 cannot be applied to the
other passages in the Classic where the term occurs.

Par. 4. Guliang has 我 instead of 戎. The two
characters might easily be confounded; but the received reading is to be
followed. Lu had been troubled with these Rong two years before;—the
attack on them now by Qi was probably intended to conciliate Lu. The
marquis of Qi had certainly been rather remiss in his position of ba. He
ought not to have allowed Zheng to take the lead in supporting king Hui
against the rebels in Zhou.

XXI. Twenty-first year.

1. It was the [duke's] twenty-first year, the spring,
the king's first month.

2. In summer, in the fifth month, on Xinyou, Tu, earl
of Zheng, died.

3. In autumn, in the seventh month, on Wuxu, [duke
Huan's] wife, the lady Jiang, died.

4. In winter, in the twelfth month, there was the
burial of duke Li of Zheng.

COMMENTARY

Par. 2. Continuing the Zhuan after the 1st par. of
last year, Zuoshi says:—"In the duke's 21st year, accordingly, in
spring, they [the earl of Zheng and Shu of Guo] pledged each other at
Mi; and in summer, they together attacked the royal city. The earl
entered, along with the king, at the south gate, and Shu of Guo entered
at the northern, when they killed Zitui and the five great officers. The
earl of Zheng feasted the king in the apartment on the west of the
gateway with the representations of the penal code. There was a complete
service of music, and the king gave him what had formerly been granted
to duke Wu,—all the territory eastward from Hulao. The earl of Yuan
said, "The earl of Zheng is following the bad example which he condemned
in Zitui. He also will meet with calamity." In the 5th month, duke Li of
Zheng died.'

On Tu who here passes off the stage, Zhang Qia (張洽 ;
a writer of the 13th cent.) says ——Tu was only the son of duke Zhuang by
a concubine, yet after his father's death he snatched the earldom from
Hu; and tho' driven out for a time by Zhai Zhong, he entered again into
Li, and in the end made himself master of the State. Thus it is that we
have no statement of Hu, Wei, and Yi's holding the earldom, because they
could not keep it, and the different style about Tu is understood to
indicate that, first and last, he was able to maintain himself. Here
then was a man, a usurper and a fratricide, and the Chunqiu calls him
ruler from his beginning to his end, and records moreover, however, how
he died in his dignity:—it is in this way that it shows how mean men are
permitted to get their wills, rebellious villains come to a good end,
the royal laws have no course, and the world is thrown all into
confusion!'

Par. 3. The reader is not sorry to have done with
Wen Jiang.

[The last Zhuan is here completed:——'The king made a
progress of survey of the fief of Guo, when the duke made a palace for
him in Bang. The king granted to Guo the territory of Jiuquan. When the
earl of Zheng feasted the king, the king had given him a queen's large
girdle with the mirror in it. The duke of Guo now begged for something,
and the king gave him a drinking cup. This was the first occasion of the
hatred which the earl of Zheng [duke Wen, son of Tu] cherished against
the king. In winter, the king returned from Guo.]

Par. 4. Something had occurred to make the burial be
delayed beyond the regular time.

XXII. Twenty-second year.

1. In his twenty-second year, in spring, in the
king's first month, [the duke] pardoned [all] inadvertent offences
however great.

2. On Guichou we buried our duchess, Wen Jiang.

3. The people of Chen put to death Yukou, son of
their marquis.

4. It was summer, the fifth month.

5. In autumn, in the seventh month, on Bingshen, the
duke made a covenant with Gao Xi of Qi in Fang.

6. In winter, the duke went to Qi, and presented the
marriage-offerings of silk.

COMMENTARY

Par. 1. In the Shu, II. i. 11, we read that it was a
rule with Shun, 眚災肆赦, 'that inadvertent offences, and those caused by
misfortune, were to be pardoned,' and how far he carried it, we learn
from ii. 12, 宥過無大 'You pardon inadvertent offences, however great.'
Zhuang, therefore, appears here to have done nothing more than was
sanctioned by the example of Shun. I do not know why the critics should
find such fault with him as they do. Guliang followed by Jia Kui, thinks
the grace was done at this time, as some atonement for the wickedness of
Wen Jiang, the duke's mother, who was about to be buried! For 眚 Gong has
省.

Par. 2. 我小君?, —see Ana. XVI. xiv. According to the
rule laid down there 寡小君, was the style for the wife of the prince of a
State used by the people in speaking of her to the people of other
States. 我 takes the place of 寡, as the entry here is in the annals of Lu
itself. The marquis being styled duke after death, I have styled his
wife duchess. Jiang, we know, was her surname, as being of the House of
Qi; Wen was the honorary title given to her on account of her beauty and
accomplishments, no account being taken of her extraordinary wickedness.

Par. 3. For Gong 御 and Gu read 禦. The real killer of
Yukou was his father, —'duke Xuan,' the reason for the deed being
unknown. It is supposed that the statement in the text is according to
the form in which the announcement was made to Lu,—to conceal the nature
of the affair.

The Zhuan says:——'In spring, the people of Chen
killed the marquis's eldest son, Yukou, on which the Gongzi Wan and
Zhuansun fled to Qi, and the latter thence to Lu. The marquis of Qi
wanted to make Jingzhong [the designation of the Gongzi Wan] one of his
high ministers; but he declined, saying, 'Your subject is here an exile.
I am fortunate if I obtain your forgiveness, and enjoy the advantage of
your indulgent government. That you pardon my want of practice in the
lessons of instruction, and hold me guiltless of crime, and remove me
from a life of toil:—this is your lordship's kindness. What I obtain is
much,—should I dare to disgrace a high position, and so accelerate the
slanders of other officers? Let me die if I do not decline the honour
you propose. The ode says [this ode is not in the Shi],

'From that distant chariot, / They call me with the
bow? / Do I not wish to go? / But I am afraid of my friends.'" The
marquis then made him superintendent of all the departments of labour.
One day he was entertaining the marquis at his house, who became joyous
over the spirits, and said, "Let us continue it with lights." But he
refused, saying, "I divined about the day; but I have not divined about
the night;—I dare not do it."

'The superior man will say, "In drinking there
should be the complete observance of the rules; but not to carry it on
to excess was righteousness. Completely to observe the rules with his
prince, and then not to allow him to go to excess, was truly virtuous."

'At an earlier time, the great officer Yi consulted
the tortoise-shell about giving his daughter in marriage to Jingzhong.
His wife sought the meaning of the indication, and said. "It is
fortunate. The oracle is 'The male and female phœnix fly together, /
Singing harmoniously with gem-like sounds." The posterity of this scion
of the Gui [surname of the House of Chen] will be nourished among the
Jiang [surname of the House of Qi]. In five generations they will be
prosperous, and the highest ministers in Qi; in eight, there will be
none to compare with them for greatness."

'Duke Li of Chen was the son of a daughter of the
House of Cai. In consequence, the people of Cai put to death Wufu [the
same who is called Tuo of Chen. See II.vi.4, and note], and raised him
to the marquisate. He begat Jingzhong, during whose boyhood there came
one of the historiographers of Zhou to see the marquis of Chen, having
with him the Zhou yi. The marquis made him consult it by the milfoil on
the future of the boy, when he found the diagram Guan ䷓, and then by the
change of manipulation, the diagram Pi ䷋. "Here," he said, "is the
deliverance;"——We behold the light of the State. This is auspicious for
one to be the king's guest. [See the Yi on the 4th line, counting from
the bottom, of the diagram Guan].' Shall this boy in his generation
possess the State of Chen? or if he do not possess this State, does it
mean that he shall possess another? Or is the thing foretold not of his
own person, but of his descendants? The light is far off, and its
brightness appears reflected from something else. Kun [☷] represents the
earth; Xun [☴], the top part of the diagram Guan], wind; Qian [☰],
heaven; Xun becoming Qian over earth [as in the diagram Pi], represents
mountains, Thus the boy has all the treasures of mountains, and is shone
on by the light of heaven:—he will dwell above the earth. Hence it is
said, "We behold the light of the State. This is auspicious for him to
be the king's guest." A king's guest fills the royal courtyard with the
display of all the productions of his State, and the offerings of gems
and silks, —all excellent things of heaven and earth; hence it is
said——'It is auspicious for him to be the king's guest.'

'"But there is still that word——'behold,' and
therefore I say the thing perhaps is to be hereafter. And the wind moves
and appears upon the earth;—therefore I say it is to be perhaps in
another State. If it be in another State, it must be in that of the
Jiang;—for the Jiang are the descendants of the Grand-mountain [Yao's
chief minister]. But the mountains stand up as it were the mates of
heaven. There cannot be two things equally great; as Chen decays, this
boy will flourish."

'When Chen received its first great blow [B. C.
533], Chen Huan [the representative of the Gongzi Wan in the 5th
generation] had begun to be great in Qi. When it finally perished [B. C.
477], the officer Cheng was directing the government of that State.'

[The descendants of the Gongzi Wan became the Tian
family (田氏), which gradually encroached on the authority of the House of
Jiang, and ended by superseding it in the possession of the State of Qi.
The farrago of the Zhuan is intended to show how all this was
prognosticated beforehand. I call it a farrago, for it is no plainer in
the original nor in the Manchu version, than it is in my translation.]

Par. 4. In an entry like this, giving merely the
season and a month of it, the month ought to be the first of the season.
Such is the rule observed throughout the Chunqiu, excepting in this
passage. Many of the critics hold that 五 is a mistake for 四; but I
prefer to think, with Sun Fu and others, that the par. is imperfect,
there remaining only the commencement of it, and that characters
containing the account of some event have been lost. It is difficult to
believe that some have held that Confucins purposely made the summer
commence with the 5th month, to indicate his indignation at the
marriage, which began to be gone about this year, of duke Zhuang to the
daughter of the man who murdered his father! Yet this is the view
propounded by He Xiu. And the Kangxi editors think it worthy of being
preserved, and call special attention to it!

Par. 5. Fang,—see I. ix. 6. There were reasons for
this covenant on both sides; and though Qi had attacked Lu in the end of
the duke's 19th year, it had since then smitten the Rong to propitiate
Lu. Gongyang thinks that the 'covenanter' on the part of Lu was 'an
inferior person (微者);' but we must understand 公 before 及. Zhao Kuang
(赵匡) lays down a correct rule:-凡盟,不目内皆指公, 'In all accounts of covenants,
where the agent of Lu is not specified, the duke is meant.'

Par. 6. The presenting of silks was the fourth step
in treaties of marriage, on the part of the intending husband;—it was
called 纳徽. But when the prince of a State was a party concerned, these
gifts were to be sent by a great officer. For the marquis himself to go
to Qi with them was 'contrary to rule,' which he violated in another
respect,—arranging for his marriage so soon after his mother's death.
There must have been reasons for his urgency which we do not know. The
common belief is that this marriage had been arranged for by Wen Jiang
immediately after the young lady's birth, about 20 years before this,
and that before her death she had insisted on Zhuang's fulfilling the
engagement immediately, without reference to that event, he having
already delayed so long, unwilling to marry the daughter of his father's
murderer. But he had not continued single all that time,—as we learn
from the events of his 32d year. The marriage he now proceeded to enter
into was an evil one for him. The lady was hardly better than her aunt,
his mother, had been.

XXIII. Twenty-third year.

1. In his twenty-third year, in spring, the duke
arrived from Qi.

2. Shu of Zhai came to Lu with friendly inquiries.

3. In summer, the duke went to Qi to see [the service
at] the altar to the Spirits of the land.

4. The duke arrived from Qi.

5. An officer of Jing came to Lu with friendly
inquiries.

6. The duke and the marquis of Qi met at Gu.

7. Shu of Xiao paid a court visit to the duke.

8. In autumn, the duke painted red the pillars of
[duke] Huan's temple.

9. In winter, in the eleventh month, Yigu, earl of
Cao died.

10. In the twelfth month, on Jiayin, the duke had a
meeting with the marquis of Qi, when they made a covenant at Hu.

COMMENTARY

Par. 1,4. See II. ii. 9. Zhang Qia observes here,
that the practice, intimated in the 至, of announcing the return to the
capital in the ancestral temple was after the example of the earliest
sovereigns of the Shu, and refers to II.i.10 of that Book, where it is
related that Shun, on returning after the close of his tours of
inspection, 'went to the temple of the Cultivated ancestor, and offered
a sacrifice.'

Par. 2. By Zhai Shu we are to understand either the
earl of Zhai, or one of his brothers. He, or his father, is called 'duke
of Zhai,' in II. viii. 6, as being one of the king's three principal
ministers. If the earl himself be here intended, as is most likely, the
叔 is his designation. From the form of the par., difft. from II. viii.
2, and others, we conclude that this visit was unauthorized, and
undertaken for some private end,—was, as the phrase is, 'contrary to
rule.'

Par. 3. This act of the duke was of the same kind as
that of Yin in going to see the fishermen at Tang—I. v. 1. There was
something remarkable about the sacrifice in Qi which attracted visitors.
Wu Cheng says:—'the She (社) was an ordinary thing,—the sacrifice offered
by princes to the Spirits of the land within their States; other princes
did not go to witness it. But it was a custom in Qi to take the
opportunity of this sacrifice to assemble its armies, and make a
boastful display of their majesty and numbers, assembling others to
witness it. It was this which afforded a pretext to the duke for going
at this time to Qi. The Zhuan has:——'When the duke was taking this step,
which was contrary to rule, Cao Gui remonstrated with him, saying, "Do
not go. The rules of ceremony are all designed for the right adjustment
of the people. Hence there are meetings of the princes [at the royal
court], to inculcate the duties severally incumbent on the high and low,
and to lay down the amount of contributions which are to be severally
made. There are court visits, to rectify the true position of the
different ranks of nobility, and to arrange the order of the young and
the old. There are punitive expeditions, to punish the disobedient. The
princes have their services on the king's behalf, and the king has his
tours of inspection among the princes;—when those meetings and visits
are observed on a grand scale. Excepting on such occasions, a prince
does not move from his own State. The ruler's movements must be written
down. If there be written concerning you what was not according to the
laws, how will your descendants look at it?"'

The Zhuan adds here the following, about the affairs
of Jin:——'In Jin, the circle of families descended from Huan and Zhuang
[Huan is the Huanshu, or "Grand Success," of the Zhuan appended to the
2d year of Huan, where earl Zhuang is also mentioned] began to press on
duke Xian, [the marquis at this time], who was distressed by them. Shi
Wei said to him, "Let us do away with the officer Fu, [Some take 去富子 as
meaning——"Let us do away with the wealthy among them"] and then all the
other descendants of the two princes may be dealt with." The duke asked
him to attempt the thing, when Wei consulted with all the others,
calumniated Fu to them, and then took him off.']

Par. 5. With this commenced Chu's intercourses of
courtesy with Lu, and indeed with any part of China proper.

Par. 6. Gu,—see VII.4. This was but a hurried
meeting; but it serves to show how anxious duke Zhuang was to get his
marriage treaty carried through.

Par. 7. Shu of Xiao is the same as Shu Daxin of
Xiao, mentioned in the Zhuan on XII. 4. Up to that time he had merely
been a great officer of Song, holding the city of Xiao; but because of
the services he then rendered in the troubles of the State, duke Huan
erected Xiao into a Fuyong or attached territory, of which this Shu and
his descendants were the lords. Here we find him paying a visit to the
duke of Lu. The par. is not in the usual form, 蕭叔來朝, because the visit
was paid at Gu, and not at the court of Lu. The city of Xiao was in the
pres. dept. of Xuzhou (徐州), 10 li north from the dis. city of Xiao.

Par. 8. According to rule, the pillars were required
to be of a very dark colour, nearly black. The painting them red, it is
understood, was to dazzle the young wife who would soon be appearing in
the temple, and to propitiate the spirit of Huan, when the daughter of
his murderer should be presented as the wife of his son!

Par. 10. Hu was in Zheng,—in the northwest of the
pres. district of Yuanwu (原武), dep. Huaiqing. It is supposed the meeting
had reference to the impending marriage.

XXIV. Twenty-fourth year.

1. In the duke's twenty-fourth year, in spring, in
the king's third month, he carved the rafters of [duke] Huan's temple.

2. There was the burial of duke Zhuang of Cao.

3. In summer, the duke went to Qi to meet his bride.

4. In autumn, the duke arrived from Qi.

5. In the eighth month, his wife, the lady Jiang,
entered [the capital]

6. On Wuyin, the great officers belonging to the
ducal House, and their wives, had an interview with her, and presented
offerings of silks.

7. There were great floods.

8. In winter, the Rong made an inroad into Cao, when
Ji of Cao fled to Chen, and Chi returned to Cao.

9. The duke of Guo—

COMMENTARY

Par. 1. This act was of the same nature as the
painting the pillars in par. 8 of last year. Zuoshi says:——'This was
another act contrary to rule. Yusun [the designation of Qing (慶), a
great officer, the master of the Workmen. See the [國語，魯語上, 3d art.]
remonstrated, saying, "Your subject has heard that economical moderation
is the reverence of virtue, and that extravagance is one of the greatest
of wickednesses. Our former ruler possessed that reverent virtue, and
you are as it were carrying him on to that great wickedness;—is not this
what should not be?"' Guliang tells us that the rule for the rafters of
the temple of a son of Heaven was that they should be hewn, and rubbed
smooth, and then polished bright with a fine stone, while in that of the
prince of a State the rafters were only hewn, and rubbed smooth, and in
that of a great officer they were simply hewn.

Parr. 3, 4. The duke went himself, acc. to the
ancient custom, to meet his bride, and then on his return, announced his
arrival in the ancestral temple, which was also according to rule.

Par. 5. On this par. Mao Qiling says:——'As the duke
met the lady Jiang in person, he ought to have entered with her on the
same day. As to the reason of their entering on different days, Gongyang
(as expounded by Du Yu) thinks that as Meng Ren [the duke's earlier
mistress of the harem], was in the palace, Jiang was unwilling to enter,
and must have made the duke agree to remove Meng Ren, while she herself
came leisurely on. And so also it was that, when she entered the capital
on the day Dingchou, she did not immediately present herself in the
ancestral temple; but it was the next day, Wuyin, when she repaired
thither, and the ceremony of giving audience to the wives of the great
officers who were related to the duke by consanguinity, was gone
through.' Here surely is an example where the rule about the meaning of
入, mentioned on I. ii. 2, cannot be applied. Where was the hostility
here on the part of the 'enterer,' or the 'unwillingness to receive' on
the part of the 'entered?' Yet Guliang would make it out that the term
indicates a kind of horror in the temple at the entrance of the daughter
of the man who had murdered duke Huan!

Par. 6. 宗婦-同姓大夫之婦, 'the wives of great officers of
the same surname as the duke.' Many of them would have received other
clan-names, but they were all Jis (婦). 初見用贄曰覿. 'The first interview,
when introductory presents were used, was called 覿.' The 幣, used
properly of gifts of silks, may also comprehend other offerings,—such as
gems. The interview spoken of took place in the ancestral temple, on the
new wife's first appearance there, nearly equivalent to our celebration
of a marriage in a church. The great officers were there officially, and
at such a time their wives accompanied them. In the compendious style of
the narrative of the paragraph, the student may think that only the
wives are spoken of, but we must take 大夫 as in apposition with 宗婦, and
not under its regimen. This appears clearly from the Zhuan:—'In autumn,
when Ai Jiang arrived, the duke made the wives of the great officers, at
their first interview, offer silks and gems;— which was contrary to
rule. Yusun said, "The offerings of males are, the greatest of them,
gems and silks, and the lesser, birds and animals [that 禽 sometimes 獸,
see the 隨園 隨筆，卷八],—the different things illustrating their rank. But the
offerings of women, are only nuts, dates, and pieces of dried flesh,— to
show their respect. Now males and females use the same offerings; here
is no distinction between them. But the distinction between males and
females is a grand law of the State, and that it should be confounded by
the duchess surely is what should not be."'

[The Zhuan continues here the narrative after par. 3
of last year about the affairs of Jin:—'Shi Wei of Jin again took
counsel with all the other scions of the ruling House, and got them to
put to death the two sons of the You family, He announced the fact to
the marquis, saying "Things are in progress. It will not take more than
two years to relieve you of all trouble."']

Par. 7. See on II. 1, 5.

Par. 8. Ji here is said by Du Yu to have been 曹世子,
'the heir-son of Cao.' He must therefore have succeeded to his father in
the end of the last year (see XXIII. 9), and he is here mentioned
without any title because of his weakness and incompetency to 'hold his
own.' Du also says that Chi was duke Xi, who follows, in the list of
lords of Cao, after duke Zhuang. But the Historical Records say that
Xi's name was Yi (夷), and make no mention of any Chi. We have not the
information necessary fully to elucidate the paragraph. Gongyang
reads—赤歸于曹郭公, joining on the two characters of the next par., and
understanding the whole thus:—there was a duke of Guo whose name was
Chi. He had lost his own territory, and now finding Cao without a lord,
he entered and took possession of it!

Par. 9. This paragraph is plainly incomplete, unless
we suppose that 公 should be 亡, and then the meaning would be 'Guo
perished.' Compare 梁亡, in V. xix. 7.

The latter way of dealing with the par. is adopted
by many, and in support of it a passage is quoted by Mao from the
writings of the philosopher Guan 管, the marquis of Qi's prime minister
[This is a mistake. The passage is in Liu Xiang's 新序，卷三]:——'Duke Huan of
Qi went to Guo, and asked an old man how the State had come to ruin. The
reply was. "It was because our lord loved the good and hated the evil."
"According to your words," said the duke "he was a worthy prince. How
could he come to ruin?" The old man answered, 'He loved the good, but he
was unable to employ them. He hated the bad, but he was unable to put
them away. Therefore it was the State perished."

Possibly, we ought to read 郭亡; but even then, it is
not known where this Guo was.

XXV. Twenty-fifth year.

1. In the [duke's] twenty-fifth year, in spring, the
marquis of Chen sent Ru Shu to Lu with friendly inquiries.

2. In summer, in the fifth month, on Guichou, Shuo,
marquis of Wey, died.

3. In the sixth month, on Xinwei, the first day of
the moon, the sun was eclipsed, when we beat drums, and offered victims
at the altar of the land.

4. The duke's eldest daughter went to her home in Qi.

5. In autumn, there were great floods, when we beat
drums, and offered victims at the altar of the land, and at the [city]
gates.

6. In winter, duke [Huan's] son You went to Chen.

COMMENTARY

Par. 1. 女 is read as 汝, Ru, the clanname of a family
of Chen, connected with the ruling house. 叔 is the individual's
designation. Zuoshi says that now 'first was a contract of friendship
made with Chen;' meaning first since the invasion of the western borders
of Lu by Chen in the duke's 19th year. He adds that the designation of
the messenger is used and not the name, to express commendation of his
mission; but such a canon for the use of names, etc., is without
foundation. And so is the rule insisted on by Guliang, that the
designation shows that Ru's official appointment in Chen had been
confirmed by the king.

Par. 2. Shuo;—see II. xvi. 5; III. vi. 2.

Par. 3. This eclipse took place in the morning of
the 18th May, B. C. 668. With regard to the ceremonies which are
mentioned, the Zhuan says they were 'extraordinary,' adding:——'Only on
the first day of the moon in the 1st month [i.e., of summer], when no
encroachment of the Yin influence [on the months of the year] had yet
begun, on occasion of an eclipse of the sun, did they present offerings
of silk at the altars of the land, and beat drums in the court.' The
Zhuan, on the 17th year of duke Zhao (昭), par. 2, says that 'the king
did not have his table spread so liberally as usual, and made drums be,
beaten at the altars of the land; and that princes of States presented
offerings of silk at the altars, and had drums beaten in their courts.'
Now in the text the drums are beaten at the altars,—one irregular thing;
and victims are offered instead of silks;—another. As to Zuoshi's
statement that the things he mentions were done only on the 1st month of
summer, when the masculine energies of nature were all predominant, it
may be doubted whether the 惟 in the sentence 惟正月之朔 is correctly taken by
Du Yu (whom I have followed) in the sense of 'only.' The same
observances took place, probably, at all eclipses. That in the Shu,
III.iv. 4, in connection with which we have them, was in the 9th month
of Xia.

Par. 4. On the 1st par. of the 27th year, Du
observes that 'the eldest Ji' here was duke Zhuang's daughter. She must
have been so, for any daughter of his father would, long ere this time,
have been married away. Many critics dwell on the fact that nothing has
been said here about the meeting of the lady, as in the marriage of duke
Yin's daughter I. ii. 5. The point is unimportant. The husband was not
the marquis of Qi, but his son.

Par. 5. The calamity of 'great floods' has been
mentioned several times; but this is the first mention of special
deprecatory services on such an occasion. Perhaps the regular ceremonies
were now first departed from. The Zhuan says:——'The observances here
were also extraordinary. On all occasions of calamities from the hand of
Heaven, there were offerings of silks, and not of victims. And drums
were not beaten, excepting on the presage of calamities by the sun and
moon.' Du defines 門 as 國門, 'the city gates,' which is doubtless correct.
But the Zhuan says nothing about the drumming and sacrificing at them.
Gongyang says it was improper; but I do not know of any authority for
his saying so.

[The Zhuan, continuing the narrative of the affairs
of Jin, appended to par. 6 of last year, says:——'Shi Wei of Jin got all
the other scions of the ruling House to put to death all the branches of
the You family, after which he walled Ju for them to reside in. In
winter, the marquis of Jin besieged Ju, and slew all the sons of the
former marquises.']

Par. 6. This You was an own brother of duke
Zhuang,—a man of virtue and ability. His visit here to Chen was to
return the 'friendly inquiries' from that State in the
spring.

XXVI. Twenty-sixth year.

1. In his twenty-sixth year, in spring, the duke
invaded the Rong.

2. In summer, the duke arrived from the invasion of
the Rong.

3. Cao put to death one of its great officers.

4. In autumn, the duke joined an officer of Song and
an officer of Qi in invading Xu.

5. In winter, in the twelfth month, on Guihai, the
first day of the moon the sun was eclipsed.

COMMENTARY

Parr. 1,2,4. The 1st and 4th paragraphs are probably
both descriptive of operations against the Rong. Accepting the position
of the Rong which most troubled Lu as given correctly in the note on I.
ii. 1, they were within the limits of the ancient Xuzhou (徐州) of Yu,—see
the Shu III. i. Pt.i. 28; and though the State of Xu in the time of the
Chunqiu was not so extensive as the old Xuzhou, the Rong, we may
conclude, found sympathy and support from it. We know that the Rong of
Xu were a thorn in the State of Lu from its commencement;—see the Shu,
V.xxix. 1. Dukes Yin and Huan kept on good terms with them (I. ii. 1, 4:
II. ii. 8); but hostile relations prevailed in the time of Zhuang
[XVIII. 2). Qi attacked the Rong on behalf of Lu in his 20th year; but
we find them here still unsubdued. That the marquis of Lu should join
officers of Song and Qi in the expedition against Xu seems to show that
Lu was principally interested in it.

The lords of the State of Xu were viscounts, whose
chief town was 80 li north from the pres. Xizhou (泗州) in Anhui. They
professed the same ancestry as the State of Qin (秦), and were of course
Yings (嬴).

[To parr. 1, 2. The Zhuan appends:——'In spring, Shi
Wei of Jin became grand minister of Works, and in summer, he enlarged
the walls of Jiang, so as to secure a greater depth for the palace.']

Par. 3. Zuoshi says nothing on this par. We do not
know who the officer put to death was, nor what was the offence charged
against him; and the par. should be left in this obscurity, like the 8th
of the 24th year, also relating to the affairs of Cao.

[To par. 4, the Zhuan appends:——'In autumn, a body
of men from Guo made an incursion into Jin,; and in winter, another body
did the same.']

Par. 5. This eclipse took place in the morning of
the 3d. Nov., B. C. 667.

XXVII. Twenty-seventh year.

1. In his twenty-seventh year, in spring, the duke
had a meeting with his eldest daughter, [married to the heir] of Qi, in
Tao.

2. In summer, in the sixth month, the duke had a
meeting with the marquis of Qi, the duke of Song, the marquis of Chen,
and the earl of Zheng, when they made a covenant together in You.

3. In autumn, duke [Huan's] son, You, went to Chen to
the burial of Yuan Zhong.

4. In winter, the duke's eldest daughter—she of
Qi—came [to Lu].

5. Qing of Ju came to meet the duke's third daughter
as his bride.

6. The earl of Qi appeared at our court.

7. The duke had a meeting with the marquis of Qi in
Chengpu.

COMMENTARY

Par. 1. Tao is said by Du Yu to have been in Lu; and
the Kangxi edition gives its site as 50 li to the south of the city of
Puzhou (濮州), dep. Caozhou. But Jiang Yong (江永) observes that Qi lay east
from Lu, and that Puzhou is in what was the western part of the State,
so that it is not likely the lady would have crossed Lu to meet her
father. He therefore concludes that 洮 is the same as 桃, mentioned in the
Zhuan under par. 4 of the 7th year of duke Zhao, and to be referred to
the pres. dis. of Sihui, dep. Yanzhou. This, no doubt, is the better
identification.

Zuoshi condemns the meeting, saying:—'There was no
proper occasion for it. The son of Heaven is supposed to make no tour of
inspection unless it be for the publication of righteousness; the prince
of a State to make no movement unless it be on the people's business;
and a minister not to go beyond the boundaries of the State unless by
his ruler's command.' Possibly, however, there may have been
circumstances which justified it. Zhuo Erkang (卓爾康; of the Ming dyn. 1st
part of 17th cent.), for instance, supposes that the pride and jealousy
of the duke's young Qi wife may have rendered a preliminary meeting
necessary, before this daughter of the duke could pay the visit of duty
mentioned in par. 4.

Par. 2. Comp. XVI. 4. The place of meeting here is
the same, and we have also the phrase 同盟, in both para. Zuoshi says the
covenant was made 'on occasion of the submission of Chen and Zheng.' Du,
in explanation, of the Zhuan, refers to the troubles of Chen in Zhuang's
22d year, when Qi received Jingzhong who had fled from it, and to the
fact of the earl of Zheng having made a treaty with Chu in the 25th
year, so that the loyal affection of the two States to Qi might be
doubted, but a good understanding was now come to.

Par. 3. Yuan is the clan-name, and Zhong the
designation, which is here given, because, after the death of a
minister, the rule was to mention him by it, and not his name. The Zhuan
says that the journey of You was 'contrary to rule,' and adds that Yuan
Zhong was an old friend of Ji You. But the journey, acc. to the Zhuan on
par. 1, was only 'contrary to rule,' if it was made without the prince's
authority. Zhang Qia, Wu Cheng, and Wang Kekuan, all advocate the view
that Ji You had obtained that sanction; and the Kangxi editors further
add that, if he had not done so, the character 如 would not have been
used of his journey.

Par. 4. The Zhuan says this visit was 歸寕, 'a return
to salute her parents.' Such a visit was due once a year while the
parents were alive. The Zhuan gives also the following canon:——'When the
daughter of the prince of a State comes back to visit her parents, only
the word 來 is used; when she returns divorced, the phrase 來 歸 is
employed. When the wife of a prince goes to visit her parents it is
said—如某, "she goes to such and such a State;" when she goes back
divorced, it is said —歸于某.'

[There is here a narrative about the affairs of
Jin:——'The marquis of Jin was going to invade Guo, but Shi Wei said to
him, "Do not do so now. The duke of Guo is arrogant. If he on an
occasion has got a victory over us, he will be sure to cast off and
neglect his own people. If when he has lost their sympathy, we then
attack him, though he may wish to make head against us, who will
cooperate with him? Now the cultivation of propriety and music, and the
promotion of kindness and affection, are the means by which a spirit of
fighting is produced. When the people are brought to be courteous in all
their affairs, to delight in harmony, to love their relatives, and to
grieve on the loss of them, then they can be employed to fight. Guo does
not nourish those conditions, and, frequently engaging in hostilitics,
its people will come to a condition of famine."']

Par. 5. Here Qing, a great officer of Ju, comes
himself to meet a daughter of the duke, whom he had sought in marriage.
A great officer of Lu, of the surname Ji, would have been the agent of
the duke in all the preliminary arrangements. That this has not been
mentioned does not indicate that there was anything irregular or
improper in the transaction.

Par. 6. In II. ii. 5 the lord of Qi has the title of
marquis. As he has here only the title of earl, Du Yu concludes that his
rank must have been reduced by the king;—which king is not known. It may
have been Huan, Zhuang, Xi, or Hui.

[The Zhuan adds here:—'The King sent Liao, earl of
Shao, to convey to the marquis of Qi his appointment of him to the
presidency of the States, and to ask him to attack Wey, because the
marquis of it had raised Zitui to the throne (See the 2d Zhuan appended
to XIX. 4).']

Par. 7. Chengpu was in Wey,—in the pres. dis. of
Cao, dep. Caozhou. It was near to the borders of the State of Cao. Du
says this meeting was preliminary to the punishment of Wey, with which
the king had charged the marquis of Qi. See the last
Zhuan.

XXVIII. Twenty-eighth year.

1. In the [duke's] twenty-eighth year, in spring, in
the king's third month, on Jiayin, an army of Qi invaded Wey. The men of
Wey and the men of Qi fought a battle, when the men of Wey received a
disgraceful defeat.

2. In summer, in the fourth month, on Dingwei, So,
viscount of Zhu, died.

3. In autumn, Jing invaded Zheng.

4. The duke joined an officer of Qi and an officer of
Song in relieving Zheng.

. 1. 敗績,—see on II.xiii. 1. Zuoshi says here:——'In
spring, the marquis of Qi invaded Wey; defeated the army of Wey in
battle; declared the command he had received from the king; took bribes
and returned.' It appears from this account that the marquis of Qi
himself took part, if we ought not to say commanded, in the invasion and
defeat of Wey; and hence arises a difficulty in accounting for the first
齊人. Du Yu thinks that the announcement of the affair to Lu was so
constructed as to make it appear that only an officer was in charge of
the army, and so the shame of accepting bribes might be averted from the
marquis. Whatever be thought of this view, it proceeds on the
acknowledgment of 齊人 as properly meaning 'an officer of Qi,' and does
not sanction the idea that the marquis is here purposely called 'a man,'
or 'an officer,' to signify the sage's disapprobation of his conduct.
But we need not depart from the usual application of 人. The marquis
accompanied the army, but he did not command it. This is the view of
Mao. Wu Cheng thought that the marquis remained in Chengpu, expecting
that a small demonstration would be enough to coerce Wey into
submission, whereas the army of Wey rashly provoked a battle. This
account of the matter derives confirmation from the 衛人 preceding 齊人 in
the second part of the par.

[The Zhuan here resumes its account of the affairs
of Jin:——'Duke Xian of Jin married a daughter of the House of Jia, who
had no child. Afterwards he committed incest with his father's concubine
Qi Jiang, by whom he had a daughter who became wife of duke Mu of Qin,
and a son Shensheng, whom he, after his father's death, acknowledged as
his heir. Subsequently he married two ladies from among the Rong, the
one of whom, called Hu Ji of the great Rong, bore Chong'er, and the
other, who was of the small Rong, bore Yiwu. When Jin invaded the Li
Rong, their chief, a baron, gave him to wife his daughter, Li Ji, who
bore a son called Xiqi, while her younger sister bore him Zhuozi. Li Ji
became the favourite with the duke, and wished to get her son declared
his successor. In order to this, she bribed two officers, who were
favourites with him,—Liangwu, of the outer court, and another, Wu from
Dongguan, and got them to speak to the marquis to this effect:—"Quwo
contains your lordship's ancestral temple; Pu and Erqu are your boundary
cities. They should not be without their lords residing in them. If your
ancestral city be without its lord, the people will not feel awe; if the
others be without their lords, that will lead the Rong to form
encroaching projects. When they do so, the people will despise the
government as being remiss;—to the harm of the State. If the
heir-apparent be put in charge of Quwo, and Chong'er and Yiwu be put in
charge, the one of Pu, and the other of Erqu, this will both awe the
people and keep the Rong in fear, and display, moreover, your lordship's
effective rule." She made them both say further, "The wide territory of
the Di will in this way be a sort of capital of Jin. Is it not right
thus to extend the country of the State?"

'The marquis was pleased with these suggestions, and
in the summer he sent his eldest son to reside in Quwo, Chong'er to
reside in the city of Pu, and Yiwu in Qu. Thus all his other sons were
sent away to the borders, and only the sons of Li Ji and her sister were
left in Jiang. The end was that the two Wu and Li Ji slandered the
others, and got Xiqi appointed heir to the State. The people of Jin
called the two Wu the pair of ploughers.']

Par. 2. This Suo had been viscount of Zhu for 12
years. He was succeeded by his son, Juchu (蘧蒢).

Parr. 3,4. Jing,—see on X.5. In par. 4, after 宋人
Gongyang has 邾婁人. The Zhuan has:——'Ziyuan, chief-minister of Chu, wished
to seduce the widow of king Wen, and made a hall by the side of her
palace, where he set on foot exhibitions of dancers. When the lady heard
them, she wept, and said, "Our deceased lord by means of these dances
practised preparations for war. But now the minister makes no use of
them against our enemies, but exhibits them by the side of me, waiting
solitary for my death;—is not this strange?" One of her attendants
repeated these words to Ziyuan, who said, "She does not forget the duty
of surprising our enemies, while I on the contrary have forgotten it."

'In autumn, with 600 chariots, he invaded Zheng, and
entered its territory by the barrier-gate of Xiedie. He himself, with
Dou Yujiang, Dou Wu, and Gengzhi Bubi, led the way with streamers
flying; while Dou Ban, Wangsun You, and Wangsun Xi, brought up the rear.
All the chariots entered by the Chun gate, and advanced to the market
place on the high way. The portcullis gate, leading to the city,
however, was open, and people were coming out who spoke the dialect of
Chu. Ziyuan said, "Ah, there are men in Zheng!" When the princes came to
relieve it, the army of Chu retreated in the night; and when the people
of Zheng were about to flee to Tongqiu, their spies brought word that
there were birds about the tents of Chu, so they stopped their flight.'

Par. 5. Mei was a town of Lu of no great size,—in
the west of pres. Dongping Zhou, dept. Tai'an. Gong and Gu both read 微.
Zuoshi says: 'Mei was not a city (都). All towns having an ancestral
temple, with the Spirit-tablets of former rulers, were called cities
(都); those without such a temple were called towns (邑). Walling a town
is called zhu (築); walling a city is called cheng (城).' According to
this account, it is not said that Mei was now built, but only that it
was enclosed, though not with the strong wall which would have served
for the defence of a city.

[Zuoshi's account of Du (都) and Yi (邑), cities and
towns, is not very clear. Unless the capital of a State were changed,
how could there be ancestral temples, with tablets of the former rulers,
anywhere but in it? Mao observes that the clans springing from the
descendants of the princes would of course have a tablet of the prince
to whom they traced their origin in their ancestral temple; and the
principal city held by them might be called a du. From the Zhuan on
I.i.3, it appears that the du were of three degrees. The ground of
distinction between cities and towns in England is not in all cases
clearly ascertained. There is an interesting coincidence between Zuo's
statement that an ancestral temple constituted a city in China and the
view that it is the cathedral of a bishop which constitutes one in
England.]

Par. 6. Yingda says on this:—'The wheat was ripe in
the summer, and the labours with the rice were completed in autumn; but
this entry is made under winter, because then there was fully discovered
the insufficiency of the harvest in the other seasons.'

Par. 7. Zangsun Chen is better known by his
designation and hon. title,—Zang Wenzhong (文仲). He belonged to a
distinguished and loyal family in Lu. We have his great grandfather,
Zang Xibo, in the Zhuan on I. v. 1; and his grandfather, Zang Aibo, in
that on II. ii. 4. Aibo appears again in the Zhuan on III. xi. 3, by his
surname and name,—Zangsun Da. In that Zhuan the name Zang Wenzhong
occurs, but the text must be corrupt. In Zhuang's 6th year, Wenzhong was
but a young boy.

Gong and Gu both take 告 as 請, 'to ask leave,' but I
prefer to take it as in the translation. Chen's proceeding, Zuoshi says,
was according to rule. But many critics condemn it, as if he had gone
privately, unauthorized. There is a detailed account, however, in the
國語，魯語上, art. 4, where Wenzhong recommends the measure to duke Zhuang,
and obtains leave to go to Qi. He took with him valuable offerings to
duke Huan to support his request, who, with the magnanimity proper to
him, returned them, while he allowed grain to be sold to Lu.

Gong and Gu say that there ought to have been no
necessity, on one year's dearth, to apply for help to a neighbouring
State; and that the prince who had not stores accumulated, sufficient
for three years at least, was sure to lose his State. That there was not
sufficient provision in the State itself for the emergency shows how
inefficient the government of Zhuang had been. Where there is no
commerce with foreign nations, a kingdom can only provide for the
occurrence of bad years by the accumulated superabundance of good ones;
but such superabundance requires not only benignant skies, but a good
government and a well-ordered, industrious, people as well. It must be
long since China had a supply of one year's provisions accumulated in
its granaries.

XXIX. Twenty-ninth year.

1. In the [duke's] twenty-ninth year, in spring he
repaired his stables.

2. In summer, a body of men from Zheng made an
incursion into Xu.

3. In autumn, there was [a plague of] fei insects.

4. In winter, [duke Yin's] third daughter—she of
Ji—died.

5. We walled Zhu and Fang.

COMMENTARY

Par. 1. Mao says, 新則修舊之詞, 'the term 新 denotes the
repairing of the old.' This seems to be the correct interpretation. He
Xiu says that the repairing of an old thing is called 新 ; if additions
be made to the old, the character 作 is used; when a thing is made for
the 1st time, we say 築. Others, however, will have it that in this case
the old stables were removed, and entirely new ones erected. E.g. Cheng
Duanxue (程端學; Yuan dyn.):—新者徹其舊而一新之也. Guliang says that by 延廄 we are to
understand 延, the duke's stables.' The special import of is not know. We
might translate it 'long;' and Wang Bao (王葆) aptly compares with it the
'long treasury (長府),' mentioned Ana. XI. xiii. 1. As to the character of
the transaction, Zuoshi observes that 'it was unseasonable. The horses
were let out of their stables at the vernal equinox, when the day and
night were of equal length, and brought back at the autumnal.' The
season of Zhou's spring, or Xia's winter, therefore was not the time to
repair the stables.

Par. 2. The Zhuan here gives definitions of
terms:——'An expedition with bells and drums was called 伐 (an attack or
invasion); one without them, 侵 (a stealthy incursion); one made quickly
and with a small force, 襲 (a surprise).'

Par. 3. Zuoshi says that these fei constituted 'a
plague;—and that the appearance of such creatures was not recorded
unless they amounted to a plague.' The canon is probably applicable
here, but the appearance of unusual things is also found, where the idea
of their being a plague is inadmissible. But what the 蜚 were is much
disputed. Liu Xiang, He Xiu, and others, think they were a kind of bug,
produced in Yue, and extraordinary in Lu. More likely is the opinion of
others that the fei was a kind of locust, that called the 負*,—the 草蟲 of
the Shi 詩; known also as the 蜚盤蟲. Liu Chang (劉敞; A.D. 1019—1077)
absurdly identifies the fei with a monster mentioned in the 山海經—'like an
ox, with a white head, one eye, and a dragon's tail,' etc.

Par. 4. 叔姬, —see I. vii. 1: III. xii. 1. There was
no State of Ji (紀) now; but the lady for her worthiness retains her
title.

Par. 5. Zhu was 30 li to the south-west of the pres.
dis. city of Zhucheng (諸城), dep. Qingzhou. Fang has occurred several
times. The Zhuan says the walling of these was seasonable, and
adds:—'With regard to all labours in building, when the first stars of
the Dragon [see on the Shu, I. 5] appeared [the 11th month of Zhou], the
labours of husbandry were finished, and the people were warned to
prepare for these others. When the Huo (Fire) star appeared (after the
previous ones), the materials were all ready for use. When Mercury
culminated at dusk, the work should be going on. By the solstice, all
should be finished.'

[The Zhuan adds:——Pi of Fan rebelled against the
king.']

XXX. Thirtieth year.

1. It was the [duke's] thirtieth year, the spring,
the king's first month.

2. In summer, [our] troops halted at Cheng.

3. In autumn, in the seventh month, a body of men
from Qi reduced Zhang.

4. In the eighth month, on Guihai, we buried [duke
Yin's] third daughter,—her of Ji.

5. In the ninth month, on Gengwu, the first day of
the moon, the sun was eclipsed, when we beat drums and offered victims
at the altar of the land.

6. In winter, the duke and the marquis of Qi met on
the Lu side of the Ji.

7. An officer of Qi invaded the hill Rong.

COMMENTARY

[The Zhuan inserts after par. 1:—'In spring, the
king commanded the duke of Guo to punish Pi of Fan; and in summer, in
the 4th month, on Bingchen, the duke entered Fan, seized Zhongpi, and
carried him to the capital.']

Par. 2. Cheng,—see II. vi. 2. Zuoshi's text has no 師
before 次; but the want does not affect the meaning. By 師 we are to
understand a small body of troops under the command of a great officer.
Mao observes that the 師, spoken of Lu, is equivalent to the 人, so often
used in speaking of the troops of other States. The troops in the text
had probably been despatched from the capital, in consequence of Qi's
threatening Zhang (in next par.);—to defend Zhang, as Guliang says, or
to be prepared for any troubles on the borders of Lu. They stopped,
however, at Cheng through fear of Qi.

[The Zhuan continues here the narrative about the
affairs of Chu from XXVIII. 4:——Yuan, son of king Wu of Chu, on his
return from the invasion of Zheng, took up his residence in the king's
palace. Dou Yishi remonstrated with him, and afterwards seized him and
put him in hand-cuffs.

'In autumn, Dou Ban, duke of Shen [as the viscount
of Chu had usurped the title of king, here one of his officers is styled
duke], put Ziyuan to death. Dou Gouwutu became chief minister, and
emptied his house of everything to alleviate the difficulties of the
State.']

Par. 3. Zhang was a small State, whose chief town
was 60 li east of the city of Dongping Zhou, dep. Tai'an. 1st chiefs
were Jiangs, and it is said to have been a Fuyong (附庸) of Ji (紀). But it
seems to have been too distant from that State to be attached to it. 降
(xiang), used actively, signifies to reduce. It indicates that little or
no resistance was made;—Zhang surrendered on the appearance of the
enemy, and thenceforth was part of Qi.

Par. 4. Lu sent a great officer to superintend this
service.

Par. 5. This eclipse took place on the 21st August,
B. C. 663. As to the observances employed, see on XXV. 4.

Par. 6. The river Ji (see the Shu. III.i.Pt. i.
20,27: Pt. ii. 10) served as part of the boundary line between Qi and
Lu, and so we have 齊濟 and 魯濟, the Qi side and the Lu side of the Ji. The
hurried meeting here is said by Zuoshi, to have been to consult about
the Hill Rong, who had reduced the State of Yan to great distress.

Par. 7. The Hill Rong, or northern Rong, had their
seat in the pres. dep. of Yongping (永平), Chihle, in the northeast of
that province. There is a most graphic account of this expedition in the
列國志，二十一囘, but I fear it is mostly fabulous. It proceeds on the
supposition that the marquis of Qi himself conducted his troops,
attended by Guan Zhong. Gong and Gu also both think that he did so, but
their view proceeds on a false interpretation of the phrase 齊人. See the
note by the Kangxi editors in loc.

XXXI. Thirty-first year.

1. In his thirty-first year, in spring, [the duke]
built a tower in Lang.

2. In summer, in the fourth month, the earl of Xue
died.

3. [The duke] built a tower in Xue.

4. In the sixth month, the marquis of Qi came and
presented [to the duke some of the] prisoners and spoils of the Rong.

5. In autumn, [the duke] built a tower in Qin.

6. In winter, there fell no rain.

COMMENTARY

Parr. 1,3,5. This might be called a year of tower
building. These various entries show how the duke was carrying his
penchant in this respect to extravagance. Lang,—see I. ix. 4; et al. Xue
was in the southeast of the pres. dis. of Teng, dep. Yanzhou. Qin was a
little way south of the pres. dis. city of Fan , dep. Caozhou.

Par. 2. See I. xi. 1. There we have the 'marquis' of
Xue, and here only the earl. It is supposed that the rank of marquis had
been reduced, as in the case of Qi (杞), XXVII. 6. Du Yu thinks that the
name of the earl is not given, because Lu had never covenanted with him.
Many of the canons for the style, however, delivered in this way, are
questionable. Yu Gao (俞臯; Yuan dyn.) says here that the omission of the
name and of the day of death is simply a defect of the text.

Par. 4. 捷 here = 俘 in VI. 5. 俘 suggests the idea of
spoils rather than of prisoners of war, but I suppose they should both
be included here. 獻 is used of offerings by an inferior to a superior,
and, as used here, must intimate that the whole thing was a piece of
vainglory and display on the part of the marquis of Qi. The idea of a
march past Lu, of the returning with all the spoils displayed, which
many of the critics have adopted from Gongyang, is properly rejected by
the Kangxi editors. The Zhuan says:——'This affair was contrary to rule.
When a prince has gained successes over any of the wild tribes, he
presents the spoils to the king, who employs them to terrify other
tribes. Spoils taken by one State from another are not so presented; and
the princes do not send of their spoils to one another.'

Par. 5. This entry is made as of an unusual thing.
Some of the critics say that as there were no crops on the ground, the
want of rain could do no harm. It would, however, occasion much
suffering.

4. In the eighth month, on Guihai, the duke died in
the State-chamber.

5. In winter, in the tenth month, on Jiwei, the
[duke's] son, Ban, died.

6. Duke [Huan's] son, Qingfu, went to Qi.

7. The Di invaded Xing.

COMMENTARY

Par. 1. Zuoshi says that 'this walling of Xiaogu was
on behalf of Guan Zhong:'and Du Yu adds, in explanation, that duke
Zhuang, moved by the virtue of Huan of Qi, to gratify him walled the
city which he had assigned to Guan Zhong, his adviser and minister. If
this be correct, then Xiaogu was, as Du says, in Qi, the same as the Gu
in VII. 4, XXIII. 6. It occurs often hereafter, and always by the name
of Gu; and in a Zhuan appended to X. xi. 9, it is said that duke Huan
walled it, and placed Guan Zhong in it. But that city is called Gu, and
never Xiaogu. Fan Ning, therefore, has many followers, when he says that
this was a town of Lu; and they urge that if Zuoshi's opinion were
correct, the text would have 齊 before the name of the place. From the
text alone we certainly conclude that Xiaogu belonged to Lu.

Par. 2. Liangqiu was in Qi, 30 li to the east of the
present dis. city of Chengwu (成武), dep. Caozhou. Zuoshi says that 'the
marquis of Qi, with a view to punish Chu for its invasion of Zheng [in
the duke's 28th year], called a meeting of the princes, and that the
duke of Song requested an interview with him before any of the others,
in consequence of which they met here in Liangqiu.' Du adds that the
marquis was so pleased with this zeal, that he made the duke appear
before himself in the account of their meeting!

[The Zhuan adds here a strange narrative:——'In
autumn, in the 7th month, there was the descent of a Spirit in Shen
[Shen belonged to Guo]. King Hui asked Guo, the historiographer of the
Interior, the reason of it, and he replied, "When a State is about to
flourish, intelligent Spirits descend in it, to survey its virtue. When
it is going to perish, Spirits also descend in it, to behold its
wickedness. Thus there have been instances of States flourishing from
Spirits appearing, and also of States perishing; cases in point might be
adduced from the dynasties of Yu, Xia, Shang and Zhou." The king then
asked what should be done in the case of this Spirit, and Guo replied,
"Present to it its own proper offerings, which are those proper to the
day on which it came." The king acted accordingly, and the
historiographer went to Guo, and presented the offerings. There he heard
that the duke of Guo had been requesting the favour of enlarged
territory from the Spirit, and on his return, he said, "Guo is sure to
perish. The duke is oppressive, and listens to Spirits."

The Spirit stayed in Shen six months, when the duke
of Guo caused the prayer-master Ying, the superintendent of the
ancestral temple Qu, and the historiographer Yin, to sacrifice to it,
and the Spirit promised to give him territory. The historiographer Yin
said, "Ah! Guo will perish. I have heard that, when a State is about to
flourish, its ruler receives his lessons from the people; and when it is
about to perish, he receives his lessons from Spirits. The Spirits are
intelligent, correct, and impartial. Their course is regulated by the
feelings of men. The slenderness of Guo's virtue extends to many
things;—how can any increase of territory be obtained?"]

Par. 3. "Ya died."—He was in fact murdered, or done
to death, and the statement in the text is fashioned to conceal the deed
perpetrated. The Zhuan relates:——'At an early time, the duke built a
tower near the residence of the Zhang family, from which he got a sight
of Meng Ren [i.e., 'the eldest Ren.' Ren was the surname of the Zhangs],
and followed her; but she shut the door against him. He then said he
would make her his wife, when she consented to his desires, cutting at
the same time her arm, and with the blood making a covenant with him.
She afterwards bore a son to the duke, who was called Ban.

'On occasion of a sacrifice for rain, the duke was
discoursing on the subject at the residence of the Liang family, while
his daughter was looking on at what was taking place. The chief groom
Luo was outside the wall, and attempted to made sport with her, which
incensed her brother Ban, so that he ordered Luo to be scourged. When
the duke heard of it, he said, "You should have had him put to death. He
is not a man to be scourged. Luo is possessed of great strength, and can
throw the cover of a carriage [The meaning of 蓋 here is much disputed]
over the south gate."

'When the duke was ill, he consulted his
half-brother Shuya about who should be his successor, and Ya said,
'Qingfu [Ya's own full brother] has ability." The duke also asked his
full brother Jiyou, who replied that he would support Ban to the death.
"A little ago," said the duke, "Ya mentioned the ability of Qingfu." On
this Cheng Ji [Cheng was the hon. title of Jiyou] sent a messenger with
the duke's order to command Xishu [Shuya. Xi was his hon. title] to wait
in the family of the officer Qianwu, where he made Qian Ji present
poison to him, with the message, "Drink it, and your posterity shall be
preserved in the State. If you do not drink it, you shall die, and your
posterity shall be made no account of." He drank the poison, returned as
far as Kuiquan, and died. His son was made the first of the Shusun
family.'

The critics for the most part justify Jiyou for
taking off Shuya in the manner described in the Zhuan. You was the full
brother of duke Zhuang, and faithful, having the interests of the State
at heart. Qingfu and Shuya were half-brothers of Zhuang, themselves full
brothers; and Qingfu's ambitious and crafty disposition was well known.
He was carrying on a criminal intrigue with Ai Jiang, and his aim was to
become marquis himself. From what occurred at the duke's death-bed, it
appeared to Jiyou that Ya was confederate with his brother, and he
therefore took him off, as the best way to weaken Qingfu, and secure the
succession of Ban. Shi Jie (石介); A.D. 1005—1057) discourses on the
subject in the following way:—'Affection between brothers, and
righteousness between ruler and subject:—neither of these things can be
dispensed with. But if a paramount sway be allowed to the affection, it
may happen that the righteousness cannot be maintained; and if it be
allowed to the righteousness, it may happen that the affection cannot
have its course. When such cases occur, it requires sagely wisdom and
virtue to deal in them aright. When king Wu died, his brothers Guan and
Cai led on Wugeng to rebel. If the duke of Zhou had regarded merely his
affection for his brothers, the kingdom must have been ruined, and the
young king imperilled. He would not sacrifice the kingdom to his own
individual feelings, nor allow his private affection to overrule the
righteousness due from him as a subject to his sovereign; and so, in the
strength of great righteousness, he punished his brothers with death. In
the case before us, Shuya wanted to raise Qingfu to the lordship of Lu.
If Jiyou had regarded merely his affection for his brothers, Qingfu must
have become marquis, and Lu would have been thrown into confusion. You
would not allow his private feelings to prevent the discharge of his
public duty, nor exchange for the life of one man the benefit of the
whole State; and so, in the stern discharge of great public
righteousness, he poisoned Ya. After ages can surely examine the nature
of his deed. When the duke of Zhou cut off his brothers Guan and Cai, he
proclaimed their guilt. When Jiyou poisoned Shuya, he concealed the
deed. The crime of the duke of Zhou's two brothers was displayed; the
crime of Xishu was still hidden, and could not be known. And hence it is
that it appears in the text as if he had died a natural death.'

Par. 4. 路寢 is explained by Gong, Gu, and others, as
正寢, 'the right chamber.' See the note in the Shu, on V. xxii. 10. The
last or innermost of the gates of the king's palace, or of the palace of
the prince of a State, was called 路門, and inside it were the apartments
called qin (寢). That character means 'to sleep,' but the qin were not
bedrooms, in our sense of the term. They did not form part of the harem.
There were three of them,—the Kao (高) or 'High' qin, the Lu qin, and the
Xiao (小) or 'Small' qin. The Lu was the State chamber, where the king or
prince gave audience to his ministers, and sometimes feasted his guests;
and here it was proper he should die, open to the visits of his
ministers, and with none of his wives or female attendants about him.
The Zhuan says that 'on the duke's death, his son Ban succeeded to him,
and stopped in the house of the officer Zhang [As appears from the
previous Zhuan, the house of his mother's family.]'

Par. 5. Here we have another concealment of the
truth, for the new marquis was murdered, without any of the mitigating
circumstances which have been urged to justify the deed of Jiyou in
putting Shuya to death. The Zhuan says:—'Gongzhong [Qingfu. Gong is the
hon. title, and Zhong the designation] employed the chief groom Luo to
murder the young "marquis Ban in the house of the Zhang family. Cheng Ji
then fled to Chen, and another son of Zhuang, known as duke Min, was
raised to the marquisate.' With regard to the language of the paragraph,
子般 simply means 'the son Ban.' Ban had, indeed, succeeded to his father,
but Zhuang was still unburied. The year, moreover, had not closed, and a
new rule had not been publicly inaugurated. The new marquis, therefore,
is not acknowledged as such. His rule was abortive. He is not called 君
or 公, and his death is described by 卒 instead of 薨. Instead of 已未 Gong
and Gu read 乙未; but 乙未 was in the 11th month, not the 10th.

Par. 6. Qingfu had murdered Ban, and aimed to
become marquis himself. Something, however, was in the way of his
immediately accomplishing his object, and here he goes to Qi, probably
to represent the things which had occurred in Lu in the manner most
favourable to himself, and to pave the way for his further projects. Mao
thinks that 如 is a euphemism for 奔; but there is no necessity for that
view. But who had secured the succession of duke Min? The last two
clauses of the last Zhuan are 成季奔陳，立閔公. I have translated the concluding
one passively; but the Kangxi editors carry on 成季 to as its subject. I
do not see how Cheng Ji, himself compelled to flee the State, could
effect the acknowledgment of Min. Probably Qingfu saw that if, after
murdering one of Zhuang's sons, he proceeded at once to set the other
aside, public feeling would be too strong for him; and he therefore
cooperated with other officers in the designation of Min, then only 8
years old;—meaning to deal with him ere long.

Par. 7. Xing was a marquisate held by descendants
of the duke of Zhou. Its chief town was at first in the pres. dis. of
Xingtai, (邢 臺), dep. Shunde, Zhili; but, in two years after this time,
at a place 12 li to the southwest of the pres. dep. city of Dongchang,
Shandong. Di is the general name for the wild tribes of the north. This
is the first mention of them in the Chunqiu.